Ohio mayor orders probe after woman alleges police raided wrong house and injured her baby

The mayor of Elyria, Ohio, has ordered an investigation after a woman alleged police officers who raided her home had the wrong address and deployed flash-bang devices that sent her 1-year-old to the hospital with burns.

However, police have offered a conflicting account of what happened on Jan. 10, saying they had executed a search warrant at the correct address and the child did not “sustain any apparent, visible injuries.”

Elyria Mayor Kevin A. Brubaker called the accusations “serious and disturbing,” announcing on Saturday “a complete review of the incident.” He said body camera footage from the incident will be released later Tuesday.

The Elyria Police Department had obtained a court-authorized search warrant for a residence in the 300 block of Parmely Avenue as part of criminal investigation, police said in a news release Friday.

That warrant was executed that same day at 2:12 p.m.

The Elyria Police Special Response Team deployed two diversionary devices, known as “flash-bangs,” outside the residence, made repeated announcements, entered the home and found a woman and her 17-month-old child inside.

Courtney Price was at home with her baby Waylon.

She described the ordeal on Facebook, writing that “15 seconds is all it took to flip our world upside down.” She said she heard the “loudest knock on the door,” and moments later the doors and windows busted open.

Price told Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer on Friday that the flash-bang devices were thrown into the home, causing smoke to cover Waylon.

“I kept yelling for my baby. The officers were in the home, searching the home. The baby was clearly laying there suffocating, turning red, blue, and they all just walked by him. Nobody went to him,” she told the outlets.

Price wrote on Facebook that she screamed that her baby was on a ventilator and she was grabbed and put into handcuffs. Price said that two medics checked out her baby. One using a stethoscope said “sounds clear,” but she wrote that “my baby did not sound clear.”

Elyria police said that the woman told officers that her baby had a pre-existing medical condition, and detectives and paramedics assessed the child, “confirming that the child did not sustain any apparent, visible injuries.”

Price told detectives she wanted to take her baby to the hospital due to his pre-existing illness, but she lacked a car seat to transport him. Police called an ambulance.

Price said that Waylon was placed in the pediatric ICU at University Hospitals after the ordeal and was diagnosed with chemical pneumonitis, which is inflammation of the lung tissue caused by chemicals, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Price further alleged that Waylon had “a chemical reaction to his eyes,” burns all over his body and struggled to breathe. He was out of the ICU by Monday, but was still recovering, she said.

She accused the Elyria Police Department of “negligence” and causing the chemical reaction in and around his eyes. Price could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.

Elyria police, however, maintained that the child was not harmed during the operation.

“Any allegation suggesting the child was exposed to chemical agents, lack of medical attention or negligence is not true,” police said.

The department noted that the two flash-bangs were deployed outside the home and such devices do not produce a continuous burn nor do they release or contain any pepper gas or chemical agents.

The search warrant was for Price’s address, but was issued in pursuit of a teenager who hasn’t lived there in over a year, NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland reported.

The mayor’s office said that the city has been reviewing body camera footage from the operation over the weekend, that will likely shed light on where those flash-bangs were released.

“Our residents demand to know what occurred, and rightfully so,” Brubaker said in a statement Monday. “Thankfully, our City had the technology to record events in real time via many body-worn cameras throughout the entirety of the incident. I’m particularly grateful these cameras captured clear audio and video, from several angles. I am eager to release this footage for all of you to view.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com