HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Woman Dies After Police Mistakenly Raid Her Apartment 
Pubdate: Sat, 17 May 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: William K. Rashbaum
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

WOMAN DIES AFTER POLICE MISTAKENLY RAID HER APARTMENT

A 57-year-old Harlem woman preparing to leave for her longtime city
government job died of a heart attack yesterday morning after police
officers broke down her door and threw a concussion grenade into her
apartment, the police commissioner said. They were acting on what appeared
to be bad information about guns and drugs in the apartment.

Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly apologized to the family of the woman, Alberta
Spruill, and said he had ordered an investigation of the entire incident and
suspended the use of the grenades, which are meant to stun and disorient
people with a loud noise and a flash. He said that he had reassigned the
lieutenant who made the decision to use the grenade to administrative
duties, pending the investigation, and that he would review how the grenades
were used and search warrants carried out.

Mr. Kelly said that the officers were executing what is known as a no-knock
search warrant based on information provided by a drug dealer, who told the
police that his supplier stored guns and drugs in Apartment 6F at 310 West
143rd Street. The dealer had told the police that he had seen armed people
in the apartment on three occasions and that there were dogs inside, Mr.
Kelly said. But in the raid at 6:10 a.m., the officers found only Ms.
Spruill, and realized the information was wrong.

In the minutes after the explosion, the terrified Ms. Spruill, who was
dressed for work, was briefly handcuffed, but a police captain quickly
realized the apartment's layout was different from the one described by the
dealer, and she was released, Mr. Kelly said.

Ms. Spruill initially declined medical attention, although she told the
captain that she had a heart condition. An ambulance was requested, and she
went into cardiac arrest on the way to Harlem Hospital Center, where she
died at 7:50 a.m.

Ms. Spruill, whom relatives and neighbors called hardworking and devout and
someone who minded her own business, was a city employee for 29 years. Her
job at the Division of Citywide Administrative Services included maintaining
lists of candidates for civil service jobs, including police officers. Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg said that what had happened was tragic and "a terrible
episode," and said in a statement that he joined all city employees in
grieving for Ms. Spruill.

Neighbors and several elected officials questioned the department's tactics.

"Obviously it's slipshod police work," said State Assemblyman Keith Wright,
who added, "I'm sorry to say, but these things happen all too often in this
neighborhood."

At a news conference seven hours after Ms. Spruill's death, Mr. Kelly said
it did not appear that the drug dealer had given any previous information to
the department, although he was registered as a confidential informant. The
commissioner also said that it was unclear whether the officers involved in
the raid, who were from the 25th Precinct, conducted any surveillance of the
building or the apartment before executing the search warrant, which was
signed by Judge Patricia M. Nunez of Criminal Court.

"We're looking at the whole circumstances that led up to this event," Mr.
Kelly said. "We're looking at the credibility of this confidential
informant, we're looking at the process used to identify the apartment, any
other follow-up observations of the apartment that were conducted or could
have been conducted, the judgment of the officers involved as to the use of
this flash grenade."

"This should not have happened," Mr. Kelly said at the news conference,
which aides said was an attempt to quickly provide information and head off
tensions. "On behalf of the entire New York City Police Department, I want
to offer my condolences and sympathy to the family of Alberta Spruill," he
said. "I also want to offer my apology."

But Mr. Kelly said it was not clear how the police had connected Ms.
Spruill, who had lived in the neighborhood for more than two decades, to a
drug dealer.

The events that led up to the raid began on May 5, when the informant walked
into the 25th Precinct station house and told the police that he got his
drugs from a man named Melvin Boswell who lived on the ninth floor of the
building at 310 West 143rd Street, Mr. Kelly said. But Mr. Kelly said that
the informant told the officers that because Mr. Boswell was on parole, he
kept his drugs and guns in Apartment 6F.

The informer, whose name was not released, described the layout of the
apartment and said that Mr. Boswell kept crack and heroin inside, Mr. Kelly
said. The informant also told the officers that Mr. Boswell kept dogs in the
apartment and that on three visits there, he had seen Mr. Boswell with a
pistol in his waistband, Mr. Kelly said.

The police obtained the search warrant from Judge Nunez on May 6, and were
able to verify that Mr. Boswell had a long criminal record, Mr. Kelly said.
Six days later, Mr. Boswell was arrested elsewhere in Harlem on felony
narcotics charges and gave his home address as 310 West 143rd Street. He
remains in jail.

"That arrest added credibility to the informant's information that Mr.
Boswell was involved in the narcotics trade," Mr. Kelly said.

The raid was carried out by a half-dozen officers from the Emergency
Services Unit, which specializes in tactical entry, and the lieutenant who
was later reassigned. They were joined by about six officers from the 25th
Precinct. They broke through the door with a battering ram. Then they threw
the small grenade.

Mr. Kelly said that the police, who have executed more than 1,900 search
warrants this year, went to the wrong address four times and used the
grenades in 85 instances. Police officials say that in the several years of
grenade use, there have been no previous deaths.

Ms. Spruill's sister, Halese Pinkney, said yesterday in a telephone
interview from her home in Hamilton, N.C., that her sister, who attended the
Convent Avenue Baptist Church, lived alone. "She was a churchgoing person
who went to work every day and minded her own business," Ms. Pinkney said.

Some of Ms. Spruill's neighbors, many of them older people who have lived in
the neighborhood for many years, chatted outdoors in the afternoon as
detectives went in and out.

"It shouldn't have happened," said Patsy Brown, 59, who lives on the seventh
floor. "They weren't supposed to be at her door. She wasn't dealing drugs.
She was a nice lady who minded her own business."
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