Last month, a meth raid on a house in Cornelia, Georgia went horribly wrong when two-year-old Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh was nearly killed by a stun grenade that landed in his playpen and exploded in his face. Bou Bou had his chest blown open by the force of the blast, and spent almost a month in a medically-induced coma. On Friday, his mother, Alecia, and his father, Bounkham Sr., gave their first extended national interview since the blast to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. This was a follow up to an op-ed Alecia wrote for Salon about their ordeal. Watch here.
The Phonesavanhs appeared with family spokesman Marcus Coleman, who doubles as the head of the National Action Network’s Atlanta chapter. They had just arrived from Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta; Bou Bou was transferred there earlier this week from Grady Memorial Hospital to begin what looks to be a very long rehab. They had been staying with Bounkham Sr.’s sister in Cornelia, roughly an hour north of Atlanta, ever since their house in Wisconsin burned down. At 3 am on the morning of May 28, they were awakened by several loud bangs, then a bright flash. A SWAT team armed with M16s burst into the house and pinned Bounkham Sr. to the ground–in the process, tearing his rotator cuff. They kept him on the ground for some time, even when he protested that he couldn’t breathe.
Alecia said that her three daughters were freaking out. Then she heard Bou Bou crying. However, the officers wouldn’t let her hold him; one of them actually told her to “shut up and go sit down.” Bounkham Sr. said that when he was finally allowed to stand, there were two officers blocking his view of Bou Bou’s crib. They took him outside and told him that his nephew, Wanis Thoneteva–his sister’s son–was suspected of distributing meth after selling it to an informant the previous night. They had a no-knock warrant for his arrest because he was believed to be armed. Wanis was arrested later that day at another house with about an ounce of meth and no weapons.
When Alecia and Bounkham Sr. pressed the officers for an explanation, they said Bou Bou had only lost a tooth. But they didn’t buy it; there was far too much blood. It was only after they arrived at Grady that they saw the truth–Bou Bou’s face was badly burned, and his nose was partially detached from his face. He has a hole in his chest roughly the size of his father’s hand, and his ribs are actually exposed. Even now, Alecia has been too scared to look.
Now here’s where this story gets hideous. Both Cornelia police chief Rick Darby and Habersham County sheriff Joey Terrell, whose agencies coordinated the raid, have maintained that they would have never allowed the use of a stun grenade had they known there was a risk of endangering children. But the Phonesavanhs maintain that when the SWAT team pulled up, it should have been obvious there were kids living there. When Baldwin played footage of Terrell (misidentified as Darby in the video, but correctly identified as Terrell in the transcript) saying that he would have planned the raid differently had he known about the kids, Alecia shook her head in disgust.
BALDWIN: You’re shaking your head. Why?
ALECIA PHONESAVANH: That picture that they just showed of the side of the house, you can clearly see the Pack and Play. Not only — not even two feet from the door they entered in at and threw that grenade in. It was clear.
BOUNKHAM PHONESAVANH: It’s right there.
BALDWIN: You say it was clear there were kids in the house.
ALECIA PHONESAVANH: Right there.
BOUNKHAM PHONESAVANH: The Pack and Play is right —
ALECIA PHONESAVANH: Right there, next to the door.
Wow. If the SWAT team could have seen that Pack and Play–and apparently there’s no way they could not have seen it–there is nada, zip, zero justification for using that stun grenade.? It wouldn’t have taken two seconds to radio back to headquarters and say, “Wait a minute, we may have kids here.” Because they didn’t take those few seconds, a little boy almost died. Taking the time to radio back would have more than made up for the informant who bought the meth not even bothering to go into the house; even cursory surveillance would have revealed clear signs that there were kids living there.
According to Alecia’s article in Salon, the officers compounded their blunder by wasting precious seconds rummaging through the house looking for drugs, even though it was obvious that Bou Bou was severely injured. Bou Bou’s siblings are still traumatized by it; one night his eight-year-old sister woke up screaming, “No, don’t kill him! You’re hurting my brother! Don’t kill him.” She’s working with the ACLU to curb the use of SWAT teams–especially the use of weapons that are better suited for the battlefield.
Bou Bou has lost his right nipple, and the hole in his chest hasn’t healed yet. Doctors also fear he may have brain damage. As sickening as this is, it’s even more sickening that this was completely preventable. From the looks of it, the only questions left in this case are the size of the settlement that the Phonesavanhs will ultimately get–and how many people will lose their jobs when all is said and done.
The Phonesavanhs have started a Website to bring attention to their cause, Justice for Baby Bou Bou. The site also includes information on how to donate to the family during this gut-wrenching time. Like them on Facebook as well.
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Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
