Source: Jose Maria Hernandez / EyeEm / Getty
A white woman managed to come out alive, though not unscarred, after an alleged face-off with officers.
According to the Associated Press, federal officers mistakenly entered the home of Ann Rylee, 19, after trying to arrest an Alabama man who was already in jail. During the raid, officers shot at Rylee, according to family members, and wounded her. However, she is expected to survive after being hospitalized.
Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran told WALA-TV that the cops shot Rylee after she pointed a shotgun at them. He claimed a “miscommunication” led to officers being at the home. Law enforcement was really in the Wilmer community looking for Nicholas McLeod, who used to live there. Jail records reveal he was actually arrested the day before on charges including possession of drug paraphernalia and evidence tampering.
His nephew, Christopher McLeod, told news outlets that he was outside the house taking out the trash with a friend before work when various officers armed with rifles and wearing body armor arrived in vehicles and demanded that they put their hands up. “They were looking for someone who used to live at that house years ago. He was my uncle,” McLeod said.
McLeod said that he explained to the officers that Rylee, his fiancée, was inside the house asleep in a recliner in the living room, where a shotgun was kept for protection. Two federal marshals who had come up to the home started yelling “gun” and fired multiple times, according to McLeod.
“They had us face down in the dirt outside the whole time this was going on,” said McLeod.
By Sheriff Cochran’s account, “This lady had armed herself with a shotgun and the entry team was giving her orders to drop the gun, put the gun down, drop the gun several times — over a period of a few seconds it seems like… And there is video recordings of that. She didn’t and she pointed the gun at one of them — then two or three agents fired upon her striking her three or four times.”
McLeod said Rylee had to undergo surgery.
“I just hope she’s OK. That’s my No. 1,” McLeod said. “It’s just so unfortunate because none of this needed to happen, it had nothing to do with us. We’re just victims of an unfortunate situation.”
The sheriff claimed it was unclear why officers didn’t know that the person they were looking for already was in jail.
It continues to be glaring that cops manage to not kill their white victims. Meanwhile, Black victims like Botham Jean and Atatiana Jefferson have their lives taken by the cops in their own home.
“We do know that there is a miscommunication in this situation,” Cochran said. “We don’t know the exact cause. We have narrowed it down to one of two things.”
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