CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged to a Tennessee family that agents raided their house by mistake.
News outlets report DEA agents and the Bradley County Sheriff's Office served a federal search warrant at the wrong home Tuesday in a raid that's now under review by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Bureau spokesman Josh DeVine said the investigation is ongoing, but "deputies appear to have initially entered the wrong home."
A DEA statement said authorities were looking for 27-year-old Monte Lamar Brewer Jr., a suspect in the 2017 death of a pregnant woman and a target in an ongoing heroin investigation. Instead, they raided Spencer Renck's household.
The father of four said a team busted through the front door, threw flash bangs, knocked pictures off walls, damaged the ceiling and burned holes through clothes and carpet.
Renck wrote on Facebook that he does not understand how agents got the wrong house.
"I am okay and could have easily been killed just thankful to be alive and my family okay," he wrote.
Brewer later was taken into custody by the officers. He and three others were indicted by a Washington County grand jury in connection with the killing of the pregnant woman parked in her car off a highway.
Sheriff's office spokesman James Bradford wouldn't say if the Renck family would be compensated for the damage.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the DEA called the situation "tragic."
"We intend to look into this matter further and take steps to ensure situations such as this never occur again," the statement said.