Mt. Vernon Family, Officials Furious After NYPD Officers Force Way Into Home
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Two NYPD officers were under investigation late Wednesday, after a warrant search in Westchester County that residents said felt like a home invasion.
As CBS2's Lou Young reported, Geneva Smith of Mount Vernon said she heard rapping at her door last Tuesday morning.
"I heard a bang on the door," Smith said. "It wasn't a knock. It was a bang on the door."
Smith said the men at her door Tuesday morning said they were NYPD officers with a search warrant. The problem is that she lives outside their jurisdiction in Westchester County.
Smith called her husband at work, opened the door a crack, and passed the phone through.
"I asked the officer for his full name and his shield number, and he refused to give it to me," said Richard Smith. "He told me, he said, 'All you need to know is that I'm a New York City police officer, and I've got an arrest warrant and a search warrant."
Richard Smith said he called Mount Vernon police on another line as the men forced their way in, breaking the security chain on the door.
"They did knock me down after I wouldn't open the door for them -- after husband got off the phone with them and told them: 'Mount Vernon police is on the way. Do not enter the house,'" Geneva Smith said.
But the men entered anyway, and never showed the warrant they said they had, she said.
By the time Mount Vernon police arrived, the men had searched the house and left. They did not find the person they were looking for.
Late Wednesday afternoon, local officials in Westchester County were demanding answers.
"I don't care who, what the other police department it is," said Mount Vernon City Council President Marcus Griffith. "They must confer – I'm demanding they confer with our police department before they invade our residents."
"This is an incident we cannot tolerate and that we will not tolerate, and we will be talking to the Police Department of New York City," said Mount Vernon Corporate Counsel Lauren Raysor.
This is now the second out-of-jurisdiction mishap for the NYPD in a matter of weeks. Last month, a Mount Vernon man died when an undercover city officer fired shots at a fleeing suspect in a gun buy gone bad.
It has taken a week for Mount Vernon to get any answers on the latest incident.
"If we were not people of color, corrective action would've already been taken," Richard Smith said.
An NYPD spokesman confirmed that it was two Warrant Squad officers in Mount Vernon last week, and an internal investigation has been launched.
