SWAT Team Bursts Into Teens' Room By Mistake

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Two teens said they were startled out of their sleep when police officers burst into their room unexpectedly with their guns drawn.A family's two teenage boys woke up Tuesday to find Independence officers in the basement bedroom of their family's duplex, after police kicked in an adjoining door in an attempt to find a man next door who was suspected of computer crimes involving child pornography.Justin Williams said, "My bed was moving, and I was scared.""And I see a guy pop around the corner with a machine gun. He says, 'Put your hands up,'" Dustyn Wallace said.

"They're still shook up about it," said their father, Brent Williams.Police said officers came to serve a search warrant at the neighboring apartment and never intended to end up on the Williams' side of the duplex.Independence police Capt. John Cato said, "Tactically speaking, it's difficult when you search a residence, particularly in the basement, to know where closed doors go."He said detectives had information that someone inside the target apartment could be armed. And with a language barrier involved, they weren't sure at first if they had the man they were looking for. So they wanted to search everywhere in the house."The officers and detectives at the scene, once it was secure, they were very apologetic in expressing their sympathy for the scare his children might have experienced," Cato said.The boys' father said it should have been obvious where the door led. But once he learned why the police were there, he was a little less upset."I'm glad they did what they had to do. It's scary. You never think of that next door," Williams said.Police arrested a 20-year-old man at the neighboring home in connection with the receiving and distributing of child pornography on his computer. They later released him, pending forensic tests on the computer they seized.The basement door has since been replaced with drywall.

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