MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Armed narcotics officers broke into a house early Tuesday, causing fear in the children, according to the woman owner of the house.

Janitra Williams criticized the department’s tactics. She told FOX10 News that officers from the Mobile Police Narcotics Unit told her they were looking for a relative who doesn’t even live at the address, which is between Mobile and Semmes.

Williams said she, her husband and their five children were asleep when they heard the commotion at their home.

“The next thing I know, I heard someone come in. ‘Hands up! Raise your hands! Not moving! Do not move! “She says. “And so, I got up and started screaming and screaming, because at this point I’m scared, I don’t know what’s going on.”

Williams said she had 10 officers. She said none of them explained what was going on, but a policeman pointed a gun at her 16-year-old son’s head and then handcuffed him and his son. 12 years.

“They had their guns drawn,” she said. “They came back over there to a room with their guns and flashlights on.

Law enforcement officials said executing warrants was one of the most dangerous things they did and sometimes overwhelming force was needed. But they have the potential to turn fatal, and some recent incidents in Mobile County have come under close scrutiny.

In February, the Mobile Police SWAT team entered a house on East Lakeview Drive to make an arrest and shot dead a teenager who authorities said first fired at the police. The boy’s mother disputes this account and says it was not clear that it was the police who entered the house.

In 2019, a law enforcement task force visited a Wilmer home to make an arrest and ended up shooting a woman who authorities said had a shotgun. It later turned out that the target of this raid was incarcerated in the Mobile Metro prison at the time.

After failing to find who they were looking for on Tuesday, Williams said, police left a copy of the warrant. She said officers told her they were looking for a relative and told her they had a video of him selling drugs at her home. But she said officers never showed the video to her.

The relative, Williams added, is an infrequent visitor and has never used his home as a base to sell drugs.

Williams’ 12-year-old son Tyquan Williams said he was scared.

“I heard the door go down, and they were pointing a flashlight and a gun at my face,” he said. “And that scared me. … It was just scary enough to see how they got there.

Lt. Christopher Levy, a spokesperson for Mobile Police, told FOX10 News that this is an ongoing investigation that he cannot discuss in detail. He said he also couldn’t talk about the tactics officers used when executing warrants; it’s a matter of officer safety.

But Levy said the search was legal and out of the ordinary.

“All the relevant documents that were signed by a judge were left at home,” he said.

The paperwork left behind him indicates that officers found a small bag of marijuana in a room in the back. Williams said it was the bedroom of one of her younger children who does not smoke a pot. She also said the police made no arrests.

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