Avery Marshall (Right) and Alisa Carr (Left) stand outside their home in Willard, NC (Image courtesy of Institute for Justice).
A lawsuit has been filed by a North Carolina family against two sheriff’s offices for the destruction of their Pender County home and the trauma inflicted on them during a mistaken SWAT team raid.
Alisa Carr and her fiance Avery Marshall recounted how officers swarmed their residence in April 2024, employing flash-bang grenades, breaking windows, and pointing guns at their children while they were being ushered out of their rooms for questioning.
According to the family’s complaint from April 1, the incident, which they described as a “terrifying ordeal,” took place shortly after midnight on April 10, 2024, and was partially captured on video footage.
Officers from the sheriff’s offices of Lee County and Pender County stormed into the family’s quiet home, shouting profanities, shattering a glass door, busting through a metal door, and detonating flash-bang grenades. Officers made Avery lie face-down, shirtless, on top of the shattered glass with a gun pointed at his head. An officer also stepped on Avery’s back, on exposed stitches where Avery had recently undergone back surgery.
The family’s children, aged 9 and 16, were not spared the ordeal either, according to the complaint.
The filing alleged that “officers removed the kids from their bedrooms and threatened them with military-grade firearms,” while their parents “begged the officers to stop.”
