Detroit police raid wrong house leaving family shaken

DETROIT (WJBK) - A woman escapes a human trafficking ring and leads police to a house in southwest Detroit where she says others are in danger the problem is - it was the wrong house.

"(She said) she was kidnapped, raped multiple times and she was drugged with heroin," said Assistant Chief Arnold Williams, Detroit police. "She also said there were multiple other women who are underage who are also being held."

"I don't think they have a right to do this - just because they're the police," said Maria Navarrete.

At 11:30 p.m. Tuesday Maria Navarrete, her husband and children were safe in their southwest Detroit home - until she says they were awakened and assaulted by Detroit police.

"They identified themselves as the police, they came in with their guns into my bedroom and they ordered us to get down on the floor, my husband and I," she said. "I asked them why they were here - what were they doing - what was wrong? And they just kept saying to just shut up."

Maria's 13-year-old daughter was upstairs; her son was in the shower. Police broke down the bathroom door.

"He was taking a shower - they pulled him out of the shower and I just don't want anyone else to go through what we went through," Navarrete said. "They never showed us a police warrant. They threw us around, they kicked us- they put my daughter in handcuffs, 13-years-old."

Also at home her brother-in-law and his children. It was her nephew who let police in when they first came to the door.

"They had us all on the floor they just kept saying to just shut up," she said. "They were here from narcotics and vice and nobody can mess with them.

"They kept saying the f word throughout, yelling at us, our face."

When police found nothing they explained they were trying to bust a human trafficking ring.

"They just said what if you had a daughter who was kidnapped you would want us to do this, and I said yes - but I would want you to have the right house," Navarrete said. "They just left and they said they were sorry."

But Navarrete says sorry isn't good enough she's filed a complaint...

"If they would have done a little more investigation I think - they would have known we were not the people they were looking for," she said.

But Williams says a woman who had escaped a human trafficking ring after four months of hell had identified the house and Tuesday night police observed two young women near the home that seemed to match her description.

Police got a search warrant and went in. They are now apologizing but defending their decision.

"The fact that we had multiple other females underage who are being raped and drugged and could possibly be at that location too - we did everything we could in our power to end that," Williams said.

"We're not very trusting people because we've had a lot happen to us," Navarrete said. "And the one people that we thought we
could trust was the police but after this - I can't trust the police anymore."

Police say they will investigate the family's complaint - but what about that human trafficking ring? They are actively searching for the house where that is happening.