SWAT Mistakenly Raids Denver Home, Lawsuit Filed

DENVER — While Kirsty Shelton was preparing lunch with her daughters and their grandmother, they were abruptly interrupted by loud pounding on the apartment door. The disturbance was caused by a SWAT team seeking a suspect living across the hall. Despite being informed that they had the wrong apartment, Shelton and her daughter were reportedly forced out at gunpoint, according to a lawsuit filed against the Denver officers.

Upon entering the residence, officers discovered Shelton’s two young daughters in a bedroom. As seen in body camera footage from the June 2023 incident, an officer assured the children they could continue playing and promised to fetch their grandmother. Despite this, the girls began to scream.

The lawsuit claims that the police then detained the entire family, including an adult who had just exited the shower, by confining them to a police vehicle for about an hour while the officers took control of the apartment in pursuit of the suspect. Although police were aware the individual they were searching for resided in apartment 307, they mistakenly entered Shelton’s apartment, 306, whose number was clearly visible. Instead of acknowledging their error, the police purportedly denied the raid’s occurrence.

Command reports later indicated that, owing to the apartment’s layout, the family needed to be “contacted, advised of the situation and evacuated for their own safety,” according to the lawsuit. Shelton expressed that the incident caused significant trauma to her family, leading to the need for extensive counseling.

“The police promised an investigation but instead covered up the raid, failing to produce their report to this day, over a year and a half after the incident. They continue to pretend that this terrifying raid never happened,” Shelton remarked in a statement.

As of this report, Denver police have not commented on the pending lawsuit. Lawyers John Holland and Dan Weiss, representing the Shelton family, noted that some officers’ reports omitted mentioning their entry into the apartment while searching for a suspect wanted for serious violent offenses. Eventually, the suspect was apprehended in the apartment across from the Sheltons’, the lawsuit states.

Under Colorado’s 2020 police reform law, which bars officers from claiming qualified immunity to block lawsuits, Holland and Weiss have filed the case in state court. They claim that at least ten officers infringed upon the family’s right to be free of unlawful searches and seizures and used excessive force.

Thor Eells, a former SWAT commander and current executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, indicated that such incidents are uncommon. Nationally, the deployment of tactical teams to incorrect locations has declined in the past decade due to improved training and fewer rushed drug operations.

Eells explained that even if police suspect they have entered the wrong location, they cannot simply leave immediately; they must ensure there are no immediate threats. “Once they start the entry, they’re not going to stop until they secure the apartment for the safety of everyone involved,” Eells stated, without commenting on the Denver case specifically.

Executing a SWAT operation in apartment buildings is complicated due to frequent tenant changes, unclear unit numbers, and the risk of stray gunfire, according to tactical operations experts. Former executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association and retired major Mark Lomax suggested that when possible, officers should conduct surveillance, obtain architectural plans, and inspect the target area in advance to ensure accuracy.