Texas police chief on leave after SWAT raided wrong house looking for suspect falsely accused of murder
(The AEGIS Alliance) – The head of a police department in Texas has temporarily stepped down from their position due to an incident involving a SWAT team. The team carried out a raid on the wrong residence while attempting to locate a young person who had been falsely implicated in a murder case.
The police chief of Galveston, Texas, Doug Balli, has been temporarily suspended for ten days while an internal inquiry is conducted. The city government is also conducting its own investigation to determine the cause of the breakdown in communication that resulted in the incorrect raid.
On January 22nd, a family was suddenly awoken by the noise of rubber bullets shattering their windows and doors in the dead of night. They became frightened as they saw the Galveston Police Department’s SWAT unit outside their front door.
Surveillance footage captured by the home security system shows the four members of the household slowly exiting the home with their hands raised. They were taken into custody by law enforcement officials, who did not inform them of the reason for the SWAT team’s presence.
Erika Rios, a member of the affected family, told local news outlet FOX 26, “I kept asking my son repeatedly what was happening, but he didn’t know. We were completely bewildered and frightened.”
During the incident, Rios’ daughter, Chelsea, was separated from the rest of the family and placed in the back of a police vehicle.
Chelsea stated, “I was alone in the patrol car for a few minutes and was feeling overwhelmed with anxiety and had to vomit. Eventually, the officers allowed me to step out and informed me that they were only searching for Cameron and nothing else.”
The target of the raid was a 17-year-old individual named Cameron Vargas, who had an outstanding warrant for his arrest in connection to the murder of Malik Dunn on January 20th. However, the raid was conducted at the wrong location, and Vargas was not present.
Vargas was later apprehended and placed in jail with a $250,000 bond. However, it was later determined by investigators that Vargas was not the person responsible for the murder, and the charges against him were dropped on January 25th.
Terry Borrell who is Vargas’ mother, told FOX 26 in a statement, “We are completely disappointed in our police department and in their investigative process.”
She continued, “This has been a traumatizing experience that no one should ever go through. We are glad our son’s innocence was proven, but he should have not spent one second in jail. Cameron is an amazing and respectful young man and did not deserve to be slandered and wrongfully accused or even seen as a suspect.”
“The police wasted valuable time and resources on the wrong person,” Terry Borrell added. “I hope that for the victim’s sake, and his family, they find the real murderer and go after the real criminals who lied to the police and wrongfully accused my son.”
No additional individuals have been arrested in relation to the murder of Malik Dunn.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
