A family in Cleveland, Tennessee says they got a scary wake up call Tuesday morning when a SWAT team mistakenly raided their home.
Spencer Renck told WTVC he was getting ready for work shortly before 6 a.m. when he heard a loud boom followed by footsteps. He was with his wife and his four young children were asleep.
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The father said the Bradley County SWAT Team was raiding his home. The SWAT team busted through his front door and threw flash bangs that knocked pictures off the walls, damaged the ceiling, and burned holes through clothes and carpet, according to Renck.
A family in Cleveland got a scary wake up call this morning. Its house was raided by the Bradley County swat team with four young kids inside. Authorities were searching fora murder suspect who they believe was staying on Lynncrest Drive, next door. The wrong house was raided. pic.twitter.com/2nVzg1PgIO
— Aaron Farrar (@aaronfarrarNC9) May 22, 2018
"They had their guns drawn at me and I had my gun trying to protect my family," Renck told WTVC. "Because I didn't know what was going on. I could have easily- really close to being killed."
Renck said one flash bang went near his 6-year-old son's bedroom.
"He said he couldn't see or hear anything," the father said. "There was a bunch of smoke. He couldn't breathe. He was freaking out. He's six years old."
Renck said he was tackled and handcuffed before the SWAT team confirmed his identity and realized there was a mix up.
"He said, 'Oh. We got the wrong house,'" Renck told WTVC. "They un-handcuffed me and they all just left and ran upstairs and went next door."
According to a release from police in Johnson City, Tennessee, the SWAT team was one house off.
After a 10-month investigation into the murder of a young pregnant woman, The SWAT team was sent to arrest Monte Lamar Brewer Jr., 27, who lives next door to Renck.
UPDATE: Johnson City PD says officers arrested Monte Lamar Brewer Jr. as a suspect in the 2017 murder of a pregnant woman. The release says he was found at 4030 Lyncress Drive; a Bradley Co. family living next door says SWAT mistakenly raided their home: https://t.co/HFBiW2C6l6 pic.twitter.com/IwgRBKFUo4
— WTVC NewsChannel 9 (@newschannelnine) May 22, 2018
According to police, Brewer and three other suspects were arrested in the homicide investigation.
The Bradley County Sheriff's Office did not offer a response about the wrong house being raided, according to WTVC.
"After all that happened, they came and said sorry," Renck said. "But I don't know how that happens."
Renck said he took his son to the doctor after the raid and he is doing fine.