Toddler flash grenade in Cornelia Ga. involved a toddler getting caught in the middle of a police drug raid. The toddler flash grenade incident unfolded on Wednesday and have left the toddler seriously injured.
According to USA Today, the unsuspecting 19-month-old child who got involved in the toddler flash grenade incident got injured when a police flash grenade exploded in his playpen.
Reports say that the child got injured at a house in Habersham County, and now he is currently recovering at Grady Hospital's burn unit in Atlanta.
According to Joey Terrel, Habersham's County Sheriff, the device which prompted the toddler flash grenade incident can be described in various ways. It can be called a "stun grenade", "flash grenade" and "flash bang." Terrell said they had no hint that a family with four children were in the suspected drug dealer's house as guests when his team went in and threw the flash grenade to try arresting the suspect.
Terrell said that his team had made an undercover drug buy at the house a few hours before the raid and the unexpected toddler flash grenade incident. The sheriff's deputies and Cornelia police officers reportedly make up the Special Response team. Just after midnight on Wednesday, when the team got a no-knock warrant and tried to enter the drug suspect's house, something was blocking the door from the inside. According to Terrell, the team did not know that what was blocking the door was the playpen of the 19-month-old child, and that the boy was in the playpen sleeping.
Terrell said, "There was an obstruction, they inserted a flash bang, they had to push the door open. When they entered the door, they noticed it was a playpen, or like a pack-and-play type device. There was a young child in the pack-and-play."
The toddler flash grenade incident happened as the exploded next to the child named Bou Phonesavanh. According to WXIA TV, he is now suffering from serious burns. The child's family friends have reportedly sent up a gofundme.com site in order to raise money for the child's medical expenses.
Meanwhile, 30-year-old Wanis Thomethera was still arrested by the sheriff, along with three others. He said that as his deputies interviewed the parents, they told them that the suspect is a relative, and that the family only recently moved in with him because their house in Wisconsin got burned down.
Terrell said of the interview, "They (told us they) knew that the homeowner's son was selling meth, so they kept the children out of sight in a different room while any of these going-ons were happening. So when (our confidential informants) did go up and buy drugs at the house, they didn't see any evidence of children in the home."
Terrell also said that his office is keeping in contact with the mother of the toddler flash grenade incident. The sheriff said that he and all the law officers who were part of this raid are heartbroken. However, he said that he doesn't know what they could have done differently.
Toddler flash grenade incident was very unfortunate and unexpected, but it seems that the police just lacked the information needed to have avoided the accident. Terrell said, "The information we had from our confidential informant was there was no children in the home. We always ask; that determines how we enter the house and the things we do. (Police) had no way of knowing the child was in the house. The little baby was in there, didn't deserve this. These drug dealers don't care."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
