In a police blunder of enormous proportions, U.S. Marshals in Bradenton, Florida, pulled their weapons on an unexpecting young mother after they got confused and attempted a raid on the wrong apartment. Fortunately, no one was physically hurt, and a recording of the ordeal has since gone viral on social media.
Bianca Britton and David K. Li of NBC News reported that “armed U.S. Marshals knocked on the wrong door in Florida last week, terrifying a young mother and a child who were forced out of their apartment at gunpoint.”
According to Britton and Li, “Kada Staples and her newborn were asleep in their unit in Bradenton, about 45 miles south of Tampa, when two armed men approached her door Friday, according to doorbell video she posted on TikTok.”
In the recording, a male voice is heard loudly yelling, “U.S. Marshals. Come to the door!”
Staples quickly rushed to put her dog in its cage and told the Marshals that she was home alone with her newborn.
Ignoring her statement, the marshal shouts back, “tell him to come out with his hands up. We know he’s in there. The place is surrounded.”
A sobbing Staples continued telling the officers she didn’t know what they were talking about as she was pulled from her apartment with guns still aimed at her.
At this point, the marshals apparently figured out their mistake and realized they had gone to the wrong apartment. Offering no apology to the confused woman, they rushed away, leaving her confused and alone in her doorway.
Britton and Li reported that the U.S. Marshals Service later issued a statement saying, “the man marshals were pursuing was Shamar Johnson, who was wanted on a homicide warrant in Manatee County.” He was eventually arrested in an apartment on the same floor moments after the marshals knocked on the wrong door.
The statement added that Staples’ apartment “was not a target of the investigation” and “team members did not make entry.”
Britton and Li reported that “there was no apology in the statement, which went on to say that if Staples had ‘not made contact with the team through the Ring doorbell, the team would not have had any contact with anyone’ in her unit” — despite video and audio evidence of them demanding she come out with her hands up.
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