SWAT team

17 Stories

Woman, 78, Awarded $3.76M Over 'Find My iPhone' Raid

Denver woman's home was surrounded by SWAT team after app pinged nearby

(Newser) - A 78-year-old grandmother in Denver has been awarded $3.76 million over a police raid that left her afraid to be home alone. In Jan. 2022, police in SWAT gear looking for a stolen truck and iPhone surrounded Ruby Johnson's home and used a bullhorn to order her to...

An Overgrown Lawn Leads to Deadly Police Standoff

Austin resident shot at city workers who came to mow it, is later killed by police

(Newser) - Texas workers tasked with enforcing city code showed up at an Austin home Wednesday morning to carry out their latest directive: cut a Travis County residence's overgrown lawn, which had drawn multiple complaints. Instead, they were greeted with gunfire, which was returned by police who ended up fatally gunning...

He Refused to Go Back to Prison—Until the Pizza Arrived

Florida suspect nabbed after 4-hour standoff

(Newser) - "Never underestimate the power of pizza with flavored crust." That's according to Florida's Pensacola Police Department, whose promise of pizza convinced a suspect to surrender Tuesday, thereby ending a four-hour standoff. Cops responding to a report of a possible battery arrived at a home around 10am...

Arrested Mayor: I Wasn't Shooting at SWAT Team

Dale Massad says noisy smoke detector was his target

(Newser) - No one was hurt Thursday as SWAT team members arrested a Florida mayor accused of practicing medicine without a license, but it's a wonder. "He's lucky he's not dead," Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco tells the Tampa Bay Times of Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad....

8 Officers Hurt as Barn Blows Up During Standoff

It began with a 'very violent domestic call'

(Newser) - A fiery explosion rocked a Connecticut town while police were negotiating with a man who had taken his wife hostage, leaving up to eight officers injured, officials say. The officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the blast at a barn behind the couple's North Haven home Wednesday night, the AP...

Calif. Father Fatally Shot After Taking Teacher Hostage

SWAT team moved in after more than 6 hours

(Newser) - A parent's dispute with staff members at the California school where his daughter is in first grade escalated into a fight, a hostage-taking, and a fatal shooting Tuesday. Police in Riverside say 27-year-old Luvelle Kennon was shot when a SWAT team stormed the classroom where he'd been holding...

SWAT Team Invades Wrong House

Members broke a window, used flash bang grenade

(Newser) - Somebody needs to get this SWAT team a map. After a judge approved a high-risk search warrant on a home suspected of hiding weapons and illegal drugs in Green River, Wyoming, Sweetwater County's SWAT team moved in on March 3, seizing methamphetamine, firearms, and arresting several people, according to...

'Dangerously Militarized' Cops Misusing SWAT Teams

Army tactics, equipment used for drug raids

(Newser) - Police forces across America have become "dangerously militarized" and are using equipment and tactics taken straight from the Army to do things like serve search warrants and search homes for drugs, a new American Civil Liberties Union report finds. Among the findings of the report on police militarization, as...

Police Blew a Hole in My Toddler
 Police Blew a Hole 
 in My Toddler 
OPINION
Jun 24, 2014 5:14 PM CDT

Police Blew a Hole in My Toddler

Alecia Phonesavanh tells her story

(Newser) - When their house burned down, Alecia Phonesavanh and her family went to Atlanta to stay with her sister-in-law. On their minivan's back windshield were pasted stick figures of the family: Mom, dad, three daughters, and a baby boy. That baby boy is poignant, because soon after they arrived, police...

Wanted Man Climbs on LA Rooftops With Rifle

Police capture him by firing tear gas into house

(Newser) - Police have captured a wanted man who climbed onto rooftops in a San Fernando Valley neighborhood while armed with a rifle after a freeway chase today, and then barricaded himself in a home for several hours. The incident prompted authorities to shut down nearby freeway on-ramps, lock down schools, and...

New Prank Trend: Sic SWAT Teams on Celeb Homes

'Swatting' proving difficult for authorities stamp out

(Newser) - Pranksters' latest hoax of choice: make a fake distress call reporting hostages or armed robbers at an address that happens to belong to a celebrity, thus sending authorities—hopefully a SWAT team—to the star's home. Simon Cowell was the most recent victim of "swatting," with a...

Thieves Steal Trove of SWAT Team Guns

Los Angeles police left weapons at training site

(Newser) - The Los Angeles SWAT team has some serious egg on its face after thieves helped themselves to a cache of powerful guns the team left at a training site. While the building was seen as secure, it wasn't guarded, and thieves were able to cut through a series of...

SWAT Team Raids Brad Pitt's Zombie Movie Set

Fully functional assault rifles seized

(Newser) - Some real-life drama went down on the set of the Brad Pitt zombie epic World War Z yesterday. A SWAT team raided the Budapest warehouse where weapons for the film were being kept, seizing 85 of them. The problem is that the weapons—most of which were automatic assault rifles—...

Hoax Sics SWAT Team on Home of Cyberbully Critic

Caller claimed he was holding hostage in Parry Aftab's home

(Newser) - Authorities are seeking a hoaxster who sent 30 police officers and a SWAT crew to the home of a prominent Internet safety advocate and critic of cyber-bullying. The man called 911 to say he had killed four people and was holding another hostage inside the New Jersey home of Parry...

Yale Students Slam Violent Police Raid on Their Party

SWAT team sent to investigate underage drinking

(Newser) - Yale students are complaining about a "terror attack" police raid on a private party where five students were arrested. Police and a SWAT team brandishing semi-automatic weapons burst into a party at a nightclub and swore at, shoved, and punched students—and Tasered one Yalie multiple times, sending him...

Video Captures Porn Actor's Final Moments

Stephen Hill apparently leaped as SWAT team closed in

(Newser) - Surrounded by a SWAT team on a rocky cliff, a porn actor suspected of killing a colleague last week moved to the edge of the outcropping and fell some 40 feet to his death, ending a dramatic, daylong standoff with police outside Los Angeles. Video of the apparent suicide captured...

NY Gunman Surrenders in School Standoff

SWAT and local police negotiating with hostage-taker in Pine Plains

(Newser) - A gunman holding an upstate New York school principal hostage has surrendered and is in custody, reports CNN . More than 100 police officers and a SWAT team negotiated with the gunman, who a local official said was a former student in his 40s. Pine Plains is located about 90 miles...

17 Stories