Bloomfield family sues claiming police raided their home due to address mix-up

Members of a former Bloomfield family say a squad of township police broke down their door and entered their home, guns drawn, prepared for an active murder-suicide. But after an exhaustive search of the house, the family alleges, officers realized they'd been given the wrong address for the apparent crime.

In a civil complaint filed in state Superior Court last month, the family alleges police forced their way into the home without warning at 7 a.m. on March 29, 2021, on a report of a murder-suicide in progress. The family describes being detained at gunpoint while officers swept through the duplex apartment long after the plaintiffs say it should have been apparent there was no crime in progress, nor had there ever been.

"Had they asked the landlord's son, who lived downstairs, if he'd heard shooting, they would have known right off the bat this is not a situation to be going in" as they did, said Loryn Lawson, attorney for the plaintiffs: Emmanuel Martinez, Solmayra Criado, and their child, who is not named in the lawsuit.

"They just burst in," Lawson said.

The family is asking for unspecified damages and attorney's fees, should a jury rule in its favor.

The officers pointed guns at the family of three ― including the child ― and instructed them to remain seated in their living room with their hands up while police conducted a search of the home, the complaint alleges. However, minutes into the raid, after no signs of a brutal crime were found, one of the officers double-checked the information given by whoever reported the supposed crime.

Upon realizing the team responded to the wrong address, one of the officers explained their alleged gaffe to the plaintiffs and apologized, the family says.

Capt. Anthony Sisco of the Bloomfield Police Department said the agency cannot comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit describes the raid as "illegal," executed without the consent of a warrant, and "beyond the bounds of a protective sweep and a plain view search," according to a copy of the complaint. Furthermore, the family criticizes the officers for allegedly violating their department's policies and practices, though the complaint also impugns the agency's policies as unlawful.

Robert Anzilotti, former chief of detectives for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, said a warrant may not be required if officers believe a fatal crime is underway.

"Time is of the essence in those circumstances," he said, but he noted there are limits.

"When we say 'a search,' that is not for evidence," Anzilotti said. "They don't have the right to open the kitchen drawers, but [they are permitted] to look in any reasonable area where a person could be hurt or hiding."

Although Lawson acknowledged that a warrant may not be required to enter a home during a potentially active homicide, she remains staunch in defending her clients' position that the officers should have immediately realized their mistake.

Compounding the department's supposed blunder, Lawson alleged, she has information proving not only that the officers erred in raiding the wrong home, but that the call to police was a so-called "swatting" prank played by a teenager in another state. Lawson said the prankster had baselessly claimed he shot his mother and would soon turn the gun on himself.

But even if the call had been real, the teen never gave the plaintiffs' address to police, Lawson said.

The Record/NorthJersey.com is awaiting Bloomfield's response to a request for police documents associated with the incident.

Among multiple alleged civil rights violations, the plaintiffs accuse the department of excessive force, conducting a search and seizure without probable cause, and detaining them without cause.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bloomfield family claims cops raided their home due to address mix-up