Subject: Yet Another NYC terror raid on Elderly Couple Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 16:53:21 -0500 To: From: Bob Armstrong http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/18022.htm NIGHTMARE RAID By MARIANNE GARVEY and ZACH HABERMAN -----------------------------------------------------------------= --------------- April 2, 2004 -- An 84-year-old Brooklyn man says he and his wife= - who uses a walker - were terrorized by cops who invaded the= wrong apartment looking for a drug dealer. As a result of their terrifying two-hour ordeal, Martin Goldberg= said he has facial bruises and his 82-year-old wife, Leona, is= in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the cops went to the right= apartment in the wrong building of the Sheepshead Nostrand= Houses in Sheepshead Bay. "The Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating this regrettable= mistake to determine why required safeguards were neglected," he= said. Goldberg, a World War II vet, said he and his wife were alone in= their apartment Wednesday when six cops knocked on the door and= yelled, "Police, open up! This is a drug bust." Goldberg said that when he opened the door, they shoved him out= of the way and rushed inside, bruising his cheeks with their= shields. "It was a very threatening experience," he said. "They charged in= like an army. They knocked pictures off the wall." Goldberg said they told him and his wife of 59 years, who was= lying in bed, to get on the floor, but dropped the demand once= they realized how old the couple was. Instead they ordered Goldberg to sit in a chair and tossed a= search warrant on the coffee table. They told him they were looking for a 24-year-old black man who= is 6 feet tall. "They showed me his picture and they kept shouting, 'Do you know= him?' " the elderly man said. Goldberg, who has lived in the housing project for over 40 years,= said he had no idea who the man was. The cops, who said they were acting on a tip about a dealer who= was selling marijuana and cocaine, stayed at the apartment for= two hours, he said. "They looked in all the drawers, they looked in all the rooms. I= kept asking them, 'What are you doing here?' They said, 'We'll= let you know.' " After the cops finished their search, Leona told her husband she= was frightened and needed the paramedics. The cops called an ambulance, and Leona was taken to Beth Israel= Hospital of Brooklyn, where she is in stable condition with an= irregular heartbeat. "I'm just happy they didn't have a heart attack," said the= couple's daughter, Shelley McConney, 46. "I don't know how this happened. This is an old couple." Browne said the mix-up began on March 11 when an informant= pointed to one of the housing project buildings and said a drug= dealer lived there. The building was next to the one that the Goldbergs live in, but= because of a paperwork foul-up, their building was mistakenly= targeted. Browne said a deputy inspector was present during the raid. After= a Harlem woman, Alberta Spruill, died of a heart attack on May= 16, 2003, after cops burst into her apartment and exploded a= flash grenade, the NYPD decided to assign a ranking officer to= all drug raids. In Spruill's case, they also had the wrong apartment. --=A0 =A0Bob Armstrong -- http://CoSy.com -- 212-285-1864 Libertarian Presidential Candidates =A0:= http://CoSy.com/Liberty.htm Restore our Right to Relax : =A0http://ny.lp.org/cgi-bin/petition.cgi?Against_the_Smoking_Ban =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A02004/04/02 4:37:22 PM