Denver Police SWAT Team Sued for Raiding Wrong Apartment and Alleged Cover-Up

Family accuses officers of terrorizing them, violating their rights, and falsifying reports after mistakenly targeting their home during a 2023 operation.

• The Shelton family filed a lawsuit against 10 Denver police officers over a June 2023 SWAT raid on their apartment, which was mistakenly targeted instead of a neighboring unit housing a violent crime suspect.
• Bodycam footage shows officers entering the wrong apartment, where two young girls screamed in fear as heavily armed officers swept through the home.
• The lawsuit alleges that officers ignored clear evidence of their mistake, including the visible apartment number and verbal corrections from the family, before proceeding with the raid.
• The family claims the police framed the incident as an 'evacuation' in official reports, which they argue amounts to a deliberate cover-up of the wrongful raid.
• The lawsuit seeks damages under Colorado's 2020 police reform law, which allows residents to sue officers for state constitutional violations without the shield of qualified immunity.

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