Police gave a Lanham, Maryland, family a fright Tuesday afternoon when officers surrounded their home with weapons drawn.
Prince George’s County Police got a call from a complainant reporting seeing a child with a BB gun or rifle and an adult male with a handgun entering a house. Officers arrived at a home on Glenarden Parkway about 4:45 p.m. and knocked on the door.
“Opened the door and it's police, like five or six of them in front of my door aiming their guns, pointing, saying, ‘Come outside! Hurry up! Come outside with your hands up,’” Enid Sawyer said. “I’m like, ‘What happened?’”
The Sawyers learned more armed police officers surrounded the house.
“They had guns pointed at me and my son,” said Enid Sawyer’s husband, Ronny. “So I was fearing for his life.”
“They pointed it at my face and they told me to put my hands up, like, ‘Shut up and put your hands up,’” said the Sawyers’ 11-year-old son, Ronssiah.
Police then explained they were looking for a child with a gun, and the Sawyers offered them entry to the house to check.
“They did not [go inside],” Enid Sawyer said. “They said, ‘Oh no, that's not necessary.’ They left, didn't even apologize or anything. They just left.”
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Glenarden Police Chief Philip O’Donnell said the officers left because they were convinced by then the Sawyers had nothing to do with the call.
“I’m scared, because I thought policemen were supposed to protect me, not hurt me,” Ronssiah said.
The officers were professional, according to O’Donnell. He said they had their guns drawn but never pointed them at anyone.
