- In 2017, officers raided a family's apartment in Queens with a warrant meant for the home next door.
- The
NYPD did not tell investigators about the botched no-knock raid, New York Daily News reported. - CCRB investigators exonerated an officer involved in the raid but were missing the key detail.
The New York
According to a report Saturday from The NY Daily News, officers with the NYPD's narcotics division in 2017 raided the home of Isaac Okoli, his wife, and four children, who were between the ages of 10 to 20.
The raid occurred around 6 a.m. on December 12, 2017, the NY Daily News reported. Okoli's children were getting ready for school at the time of the raid, he said. He was asleep and his wife, Millycent Atuegwu, was doing stretches in bed. She fell and passed out during the raid, the report said.
But the officers with the NYPD's narcotics division were at the wrong home. A judge had signed off on a no-knock search warrant police requested for a suspected cocaine dealer at 22-37 Dix Ave., according to an affidavit of the report. The police instead raided the Okoli home next door, located at 22-29 Dix Ave., the report said.
During the raid, one officer "berated" his 10-year-old daughter, he told the outlet. His 20-year-old daughter hid in a closet until police ordered her into the living room at gunpoint, the NY Daily News reported.
Okoli also told the outlet an officer planted a "vial of cocaine" in his home. He was arrested on a drug possession charge, which was dropped before he ever appeared in court, the report said.
The warrant was filled out by the since-retired Det. Lawrence Avvenire, the report said. Insider was unable to reach Avvenire for comment.
The NY Daily News on Sunday reported when the Civilian Complaint Review Board investigated an abuse of authority complaint against Avvenire in connection with the raid, the NYPD failed to inform the board it had conducted the raid at the incorrect address.
Instead, the NYPD had provided to the agency the search warrant it executed that listed Okoli's address, but did not provide the warrant affidavit it showed in court that said authorities intended to execute the search at the property next door.
The CCRB cleared Avvenire of wrongdoing in its investigation. A spokesperson for the agency confirmed to Insider it had been unaware of the sealed affidavit with the second address at the time of its decision.
It was "just one example of the type of evidence which the CCRB is often denied because it does not have adequate access to relevant records," the agency said.
The spokesperson added the agency supported calls to increase its access to evidence by exempting it from sealing statutes.
Okoli has sued the city of New York and the NYPD over the incident, the report said. Rehan Nazrali, a lawyer for the family, did not return Insider's request for comment Monday.
The New York Police Department told Insider it would not comment on pending litigation, but instead offered a statement defending its practice of using no-knock warrants in cases involving guns or narcotics.
"Last year, Search Warrants led to the seizure of 792 firearms and 667 instances in which Narcotics were found. Of the over 1800 warrants executed there were only 40 total instances where the evidence sought was not still present at the location when the court-approved search was carried out, NYPD spokesperson Edward D. Riley said in a statement.
"The standards for securing search warrants are high," Riley added. "That process is supervised by the District Attorney's Office and then reviewed by a judge to ensure the legal and constitutional standards are met."
No-knock warrants, sometimes used by police during drug cases to prevent suspects from fleeing law enforcement, have been widely criticized, especially since police in Louisville shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment last year when executing such a warrant. While authorities say police knocked before entering Taylor's home, the suspect police were searching for did not live there.