Three Toronto residents were suddenly awakened Wednesday morning by police breaking down the door of their home looking for a man who had not lived there in nearly two years.
Brianna Riley and her two roommates were awakened at 5 a.m. by police as they searched their apartment for a man accused of vandalizing a downtown Toronto bookstore.
Police had a search warrant for this 33-year-old man, who had already been living in the home…for more than 20 months.
“It was terrifying, disturbing and unexpected,” Ms. Reilly told the Toronto Star.
The three roommates also admitted they were confused about how they received the search warrant in the first place.
“From my point of view, it looks like they didn’t take necessary precautions at all,” said Vidhanth Govi, one of the roommates. He wonders why investigators did not contact the homeowner to find out if the suspect was still living in the home.
Reed Rusonic, a criminal lawyer, told English-language media that while police could not notify the homeowner in order to alert the suspect, investigators could have conducted additional checks to confirm he lived there at that address.
Goofy was still half asleep and half naked when a police officer entered his room. The officer interrogated him “violently” and repeatedly showed him a picture of the suspect on his phone, before he realized the mistake he had made.
“A search warrant can only be approved if the offender can prove that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the suspect or evidence is located at the address in question. Sometimes this information turns out to be inaccurate,” a Toronto police spokesperson told English-language media. “Not necessarily because the officers were not careful.”
“Inspections are conducted all the time, nothing illegal is found, and the reasons for the arrest warrant are clearly incorrect,” Rusonic said. We do not know the extent of the problem, because the police are not required to disclose this information.
The suspect and those accomplices were finally arrested later on Wednesday. They face charges of aggravated mischief over $5,000.
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