Brantford family ‘traumatized’ after police target wrong apartment in drug search

A Brantford family, including two children, is traumatized and looking for answers after police mistakenly targeted their apartment during a botched drug raid last week.

The family of four, including a six-year-old and a 13-year-old, were at home Sept. 8 when Brantford police burst through their apartment door during a no-knock warrant" looking for drugs, said the family's lawyer Mike Smitiuch.

Michael Kelly and Shauna McDonald were handcuffed and Kelly allegedly kicked in the head before police realized they were in the wrong apartment. McDonald suffered vision and hearing issues from what the family believes was a flash grenade, Smitiuch said.

They are very traumatized by what happened and struggling to understand," Smitiuch said. All of the family have suffered emotionally."

In a press release, Brantford police said officers from the tactical intelligence generated enforcement and response unit (TIGER) executed three search warrants during a drug-trafficking investigation named Project Viking.

Unfortunately, one of the warrants was executed at an incorrect address by our emergency response team," police said. The service has initiated a chief's investigation to determine what happened and to implement any policy improvements required.

The Brantford Police Service acknowledges that this experience would have been unsettling for those impacted," police said.

According to police, Project Viking launched in May 2022 and targeted a man suspected of supplying Brantford and surrounding area with fentanyl and methamphetamine. During the investigation, police seized more than $600,000 in drugs and arrested a 34-year-old Brampton man.

The initial press release about Project Viking made no mention of the botched raid, but was followed the same day with one about the chief's investigation tied to the case.

Transparency and accountability are core values of the Brantford Police Service and, as chief, I am conducting a Chief's Investigation to determine how this type of error could have occurred and want to assure residents of Brantford that measures will be put in place to make sure this does not occur again," Chief Rob Davis said in a statement.

Above all else, the trust of our community is essential to the Brantford Police Service."

Smitiuch said he was hired to help the family find answers to how this happened and make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

The family lives in a highrise apartment at 129 Wellington St., which is connected by an underground parking garage to another highrise building at 150 Darling St. Smitiuch said it appears police entered through the underground parking garage and mistakenly went into the wrong building. They went to the apartment unit identified on the warrant, but since they were in the wrong building, they entered the wrong apartment.

After police burst through the door, Smitiuch said his clients kept saying they had done nothing wrong and asking why police were there. It's not clear when or why police finally realized it was the wrong place.

Among the steps the family is considering is whether to file a complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD). A lawsuit is not planned at this time, he said. The family's focus is on helping their children who were very scared by what they saw.

The key question is how did this happen in the first place?" Smitiuch said. The family is very keen on this not happening to someone else ... they want to see a complete investigation."

Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com