Just another tiny mistake by our fine upstanding law enforcement organizations that are really here to protect us. They aren’t here to intimidate us and provoke fear. This time they chain sawed down the door of a defenseless woman without identifying themselves as FBI agents. If that had been the home of someone with a gun who tried to protect themselves, the homeowner would have been shot 45 times by these fine examples of government ineptitude. But don’t you concern yourself. They said they were sorry after pointing a gun at her head for 45 minutes on the kitchen floor of her home. Can’t she take a joke? Liberty and freedom disappear day by day as we move ever closer to Orwell’s 1984 world.
Fitchburg woman and daughter ‘terrified’ as saw rips down door after getting wrong address in drug sweep
FITCHBURG — It was a horror movie come to life.
Judy Sanchez woke Thursday to the sound of heavy footsteps in her stairwell, followed by a loud motor. She got to her kitchen in time to see the blade of a chain saw rip through her front door.
“It was so crazy,” Judy Sanchez said. “I was terrified.”
Jan. 26 was the day of Operation Red Wolf, a multiagency sweep during which 16 people in Fitchburg were arrested on charges related to gang activity, drug trafficking and illegal gun sales after a two-year investigation by federal, state and local law-enforcement officers.
The people sawing through her door were FBI agents, looking for a gang member suspected of trafficking cocaine. But they went to the wrong address.
Sanchez said the ordeal traumatized her and her 3-year-old daughter, Ji’anni, and she is unsatisfied with the agency’s response to the error.
About 10 FBI agents came into her apartment at 391 Elm St., that morning, guns drawn and pointed at her. There was no knock, and they didn’t shout that they were from the FBI until after the saw was buzzing through her six-panel front door, she said.
She believes it took about three minutes for them to saw a big rectangle through the door, then kick in the center. She shouted repeatedly that they had the wrong place.
Once the first agent was inside, she was ordered facedown on the floor at gunpoint. Her 3-month-old pit-bull Lexi wet the floor, and she was instructed to grab the dog and hold her. To do so, she said, she had to reach through the dog’s urine.
Sanchez doesn’t know how long she was held on the floor, but estimates it was between 30 and 45 minutes while her daughter cried in the other room. It was a cold morning, and she was not allowed to put warm clothes on.
“I was still at gunpoint the whole time. I was freezing,” Sanchez said.
The FBI agents kept asking her where Luis Vasquez was, and she said she didn’t know.
Sanchez and her daughter live in apartment 2R, which is located in the rear of the building. The other apartment on the floor, 2F, is at the front and is the home of Luis R. “Joker” Vasquez, but Sanchez said she only knew him as “Jay.”
Vasquez, 41, is believed to be the leader of the local arm of the Sex, Money, Murda gang and was captured in his apartment. He faces up to 40 years in prison, a $5 million fine and lifetime supervision when released.
Tim Christmas, the former building manager, was called in to install a replacement door in Sanchez’ apartment. He estimated the fiberglass, prehung door unit he installed cost about $250.
The FBI will reimburse Lancaster Oaks Development, the company that owns the building, for the door.
Christmas also said he repaired the frame to Vasquez’s back door, which was pushed in for entrance.
“This is a big screw-up,” Christmas said.
He and Sanchez are both in disbelief that Vasquez could be involved in a gang, saying they thought he was a positive influence in the neighborhood and good with children.
A female FBI agent wrote down a number for Sanchez’s landlord to call for reimbursement for the door and the number for Damon Katz, chief counsel for the Boston division of the FBI. Sanchez said she received a quick oral apology that was devoid of remorse.
“Just a little pat on the back and saying ‘I’m sorry’ is not OK,” she said.
She said chain-sawing through a door may be common practice for the FBI, but it was a traumatic event for her and her daughter.
Sanchez attends classes at Fitchburg State University and didn’t go to class Thursday, feeling too disoriented. She’s having trouble sleeping now, and her daughter didn’t want to go into their bathroom all weekend because it is located next to the door the FBI used.
An FBI spokesman read a prepared statement about the incident.
“The mistake was quickly apparent to the FBI agents who entered the apartment. … The FBI assistant special agent in charge recognized legitimate concerns the resident had about the mistake,” the statement read.
The statement maintained that the agent that spoke with Sanchez apologized repeatedly and left her phone number and another number for any “further concerns.”
The FBI does not reveal specific operational details about the tactics of an arrest team, such as how long it takes to open a door. The spokesman said the agents typically wield M4 assault rifles and that it’s possible the shock of the event confused Sanchez about the length of time everything took.
The Fitchburg Police Department was not involved in the incident. Police spokesman Sgt. Glenn Fossa said he does not have direct knowledge of the details of the incident. He said the concept of compensation for property damage and trauma from a misdirected police raid is too broad a concept to identify a policy for what the department would do in a similar scenario.
Read more: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_19857939#ixzz1lEB4D27C
flash says:
All Judy Sanchez has to do was scream that he home was protected under the Fourth Amendment and the FBI being dutifully respectful of the Bill of Rights would have withdrawn their assualt and apologized as any other liberty loving American would do.
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2nd February 2012 at 8:24 am
ecliptix543 says:
Just one more straw leading to open season on the piggies at some point. She should have had the sheriff arrest the agents and press charges of B&E, Multiple counts – Aggravated Assault with Intent to Kill, Multiple counts – Aggravated Assault with a Firearm, Felony Violation of Civil Rights… I could probably think up a dozen other crimes that only us peasants are ever held liable for… never the piggies.
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2nd February 2012 at 9:03 am
Persnickety says:
Inexcusable. I am being very kind and forgiving when I say that one or more of the agents needs some prison time over this.
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2nd February 2012 at 10:59 am
Hope@Zerokelvin says:
You guys are looking at this all wrong. Typical, typical, since you guys mistakenly believe that the rule of law is better than the rule of men.
The FBI ONLY has the very best interests of the 4th Amendment rights on the American people at heart. Only the guilty have anything to fear. The FBI, I am sure, would never make such a mistake.
This article is written only to embarrass the fine men and women of the FBI, duh.
Besides, now we can employ (and pay) dozens of people to repair the door, administer psychological treatment for the women and her daughter (and maybe the dog), and the medical treatment for any injuries.
These FBI sweeps are absolutely essential in preserving our freedoms and liberty and keeping money in circulation.
Get a clue.
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2nd February 2012 at 11:05 am
ragman says:
This was bad enough but imagine this happening to an armed citizen. The citizen would have every right to start shooting and axe questions later. Result: probably a couple of dead Fibbies and a dead Citizen, all because of govt ineptitude.
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2nd February 2012 at 11:59 am
AWD says:
Same old shit.
A “drug sweep”
The war on drugs is a war on the American people.
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2nd February 2012 at 12:19 pm
Nonanonymous says:
A 2 yr investigation and they got the address wrong?
How about suing for wrongful imprisonment?
You make a mistake, you pay for it. It’s called accountability. Any highly trained FBI specialists lose their job over it? Of course not, no accountability.
Someone may be in the dog house over it, but it doesn’t erase the trauma these agents inflicted on that family.
This isn’t going to end well. The federal bureaucracy has taken on a life of it’s own and is out of control. It’s time for the people to take back control from the feds. That’s why we have a Constitution.
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2nd February 2012 at 12:20 pm
Stucky says:
Personally, I feel much safer now. I’m looking for place to escape from the coming Doom. I’m gonna have to give Fitchburg a serious look.
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2nd February 2012 at 2:04 pm
IndenturedServant says:
If that had been my home I’d be laying dead in a pool of my own sauce within minutes I assume. I would have proceeded to unload multiple “cap bustificators” on their asses until they took me out. I’m sure that even then, there would be no ramifications for the fine upstanding, albeit, inept law enforcement professionals involved.
I_S
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2nd February 2012 at 6:16 pm
Novista says:
I find it interesting that I discern problems on certain articles and not others. I started noticing the gremlins yesterday. Not sure what but here is what I do know:
When Firefox dims or freezes shortly, my system monitor shows extreme CPU activity, yet no incoming or outgoing data — in this instance, 30 Blocks of Squalor seems clean, switch back to this tab, the CPUs go wild. I am guessing some malware got in and is probably trying to run a Windows–centric script. I know this because when I click JavaScript off in Firefox preferences, excessive activity ceases.
Oh yeah, I have ADSL modem which is marginal help in noticing external activity not expected … and linux does the rest. Still, I will have to investigate further — whether it’s a local script or some port activity I know not of …
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2nd February 2012 at 8:27 pm
Stucky says:
Admin — you might want Mr. Dothead to check out these new problems ……
I’ve noticed that whenever I click on a post from RE that the error log records approximately 7 million errors.
Whenever I click on a post from AWD I get an error message, “Try again you fat fuck.”
And whenI click on a post from Colma I get an error message, “Boomers suck dick”, and then the system immediately freezes.
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2nd February 2012 at 8:36 pm
Alpha Squad says:
I guess I’m glad I replaced my entrance doors with solid steel ones…..
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2nd February 2012 at 11:04 pm
Novista says:
Alpha Squad
A nice neon sign transformer is a good accessory …
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2nd February 2012 at 12:11 am
pelhamlegal says:
As I have gotten older and read about more and more of these “F” Troop type screw ups I have graduated from a .38 in the night stand to a .45 to a 12 gauge. I now have a M1A with 20 rounds of 147 grain military full metal jacket. Why you ask? Because this round will shred body armor. This is sad because some of the people I admired the most when I was younger were retired FBI agents. My favorite professor in law school was retired FBI and my son considered the FBI when he graduated. I am afraid this kind of criminal activity will only stop when private citizens shoot back with the right kind of weapon. In the last few years the production of these military style firearms have been sold out because I had to pay full price and every sporting goods store was sold out, so there must be 10′s of thousands of these weapons by the bed of law abiding citizens all across this country. Again so sad that we have to be afraid of the very people who are suppose to protect us.
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2nd February 2012 at 5:14 am
flash says:
Face it., hiring tax-feeding morons who can’t seem to find the correct address on the no knock warrant is just the price We the US have to pay for what passes as security these days.
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2nd February 2012 at 8:11 am