‘I Felt As If I Was Going to Die’: North Carolina Deputies Taunt Black Family After Destroying Home In Botched Raid Claiming They Should Be Glad More Damage Wasn’t Done, Lawsuit Claims
Armed with assault rifles, flash bang grenades and a search warrant obtained through lies and incompetence, North Carolina sheriff’s deputies raided the home of an innocent Black family last year, breaking into the home after midnight before terrorizing a father, mother and their children, leaving the home destroyed and the family traumatized.
All because the deputies confused the 2017 Nissan Altima parked in front of the family home with the 2007 Nissan Sentra owned by the suspect they had been seeking – even though the two cars were different in color and had different license plate numbers.
Adding to the incompetence, the deputies zeroed in on the home of Alisa Carr and Avery Marshall solely because cell phone location data indicated the car they had been seeking was within 52 meters from the home – which is more than half of a football field – an area encompassing five other homes that were not raided.
Earlier this week, the Black couple filed a lawsuit against the Lee and Pender county sheriff’s offices, accusing them of violating their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights when they raided their Willard home on April 9, 2024.
Carr and Marshall are being represented by attorneys from the Institute for Justice, a non-profit organization that accuses Lee County Sheriff’s Detective J. Thomas Dylan of deliberately misleading the judge to get him to sign the warrant.
The judge relied on Officer Thomas’s false statements and material omissions to conclude that probable cause supported the issuance of the warrant.
The magistrate did not know, and could not have known from Officer Thomas’s affidavit, that officers observed only Alisa’s car—not the vehicle described by the suspect’s father—at Alisa’s address.
Without the false and materially misleading statements and material omissions in Officer Thomas’s probable-cause affidavit, no magistrate could have found probable cause to issue a warrant to search the premises at 680 Messick Road, Alisa’s house, accessory structures at 680 Messick Road, or vehicles at 680 Messick Road.
Officer Thomas’s false statement that Pender County officers observed the suspect’s vehicle at Alisa’s address was not an act of negligence or an innocent mistake.
Also listed as defendants are Pender County Sheriff’s Captain Nazareth Hankins and several unnamed John Doe deputies as well as Lee County Sheriff Brian Estes and Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler.
“That night is something I will never forget,” Carr said in a video interview with the Institute for Justice, posted at the bottom of the article.
“I felt as I was going to die,” added Marshall in the same interview.
Incompetent Investigation
It all started after sheriff deputies began investigating reports of a Black man breaking into cars and stealing items who was identified from video footage as Joseph Clark Jr., who lived 30 miles away from Marshall and Carr in a separate county.
Earlier that day, Thomas and deputies from the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office raided the Bladen County home where Clark lived with his family, finding items believed to have been stolen by Clark.
Clark was not home at the time but his father told deputies his son was with his sister in their 2007 Nissan Sentra with the license plate number VA5234.
However, the actual license plate number of the Sentra was VAJ2394 and may have been written incorrectly by Thomas or incorrectly described by the father, the lawsuit explains.
And while those two numbers contain similar numbers and letters, they are nowhere close to Carr’s license plate which is FKE8649 and should have been clearly visible to the deputies considering the car was parked in their front yard.
Carr’s Altima was also bright silver in color while Clark’s Sentra is described as medium dark gray in color – not to mention both models are some of the most popular cars sold in the United States.
“The Nissan Altima was, at least as of 2019, the most popular used car in the United States,” the lawsuit states. “The Nissan Sentra was, at least as of 2019, the second-most popular used sedan in the United States.”
The deputies than obtained Clark’s cellphone data to track him down which is what led them to the residence of Marshall and Carr – who had never met Clark before in their lives – where they spotted the Altima parked in front of their home.
The lawsuit states the deputies spotted the Nissan at around 8 p.m. that night and were able to persuade the judge to sign the warrant around midnight before raiding the home at 1 a.m. on April 10, 2024 where they did not double-check cellphone data location to confirm if Clark was still in the area.
“Officer Thomas, Officer Hankins, and John Does knew that the location data may be inaccurate,” the claim states.
“At least five other properties lie within 52 meters of the plot of land at 680 Messick Road. A public road lies within 52 meters of the plot of land at 680 Messick Road.”
So chances are, Clark had just been driving on the public road at the same time the deputies pinged his location but the deputies spotted the Altima parked in front of the home of the innocent family and did not do any further investigating to confirm if the car was registered to Clark which could have easily been done through a simple license plate check.
“When surveilling Alisa and Avery’s home on April 9, 2024, no officer observed any signs that the suspect had ever been at the home,” the lawsuit states.
“At most, all the officers observed was that a silver 2017 Nissan sedan was parked in front of the house.”
But the lawsuit states that Thomas lied in his affidavit to obtain the search warrant by claiming, “Pender County Sheriff’s Office drove by 680 Messick Road, and observed the vehicle the suspect’s father stated that he was riding in.”
“This statement was false,” the claim states.
“Again, no officer observed at 680 Messick Road a 2007 Nissan Sentra, a gray Nissan passenger car, or a license plate similar to that of the vehicle described by the suspect’s father.”
Traumatizing Raid
The deputies pulled up in several cars and began banging on the front door before kicking it open, shattering the outer glass storm door and breaking down the inner metal door and tossing two flash grenades inside the home.
One of the flash grenades struck Marshall in the chest who was shirtless, clad only in underwear, knocking him down.
Then as noxious fumes filled the home and smoke alarms went off, the deputies ordered Marshall to crawl towards them over the shattered glass as more than a dozen cops entered the home.
One deputy entered the room of the couple’s 9-year-old son, shouting profanities while pointing a laser scope light on the boy’s face.
When Marshall, who was still face down on the floor lifted his head to protest, a deputy placed his foot on his back, aggravating the stitches from his recent back surgery.
Another deputy kicked open the bedroom door to the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, ordering her to step outside, forcing her to walk barefoot on the shattered glass.
And another deputy pointed his gun at Carr who was dressed only in a nightgown and was having trouble breathing due to the noxious fumes in the air from the flash grenades.
Carr, who had already suffered two heart attacks before the raid, began experiencing heart palpitations, telling the deputies she was unable to breathe.
The family members were all separated and interrogated by the deputies who accused them of lying when they said they had never met Clark, the suspect sought by deputies.
The deputies spent the next two hours ransacking and destroying the home, finding no evidence that Clark had ever been there. He was eventually arrested in a separate county the following day.
Once they were done, the deputies left without even an apology or assurance they would repair the damage they caused.
“As officers departed the home, Avery asked who was going to pay for the property damage,” the lawsuit states.
“An officer told him Avery and Alisa would have to pay for it. The officer added that Avery should just be glad the officers didn’t damage more property, like throwing a couch into the TV.”
In February, the couple was offered a settlement of $10,249.58 to repair the damages but they refused that offer because the lingering damages go beyond the destruction of their home.
Not only did Marshall re-injure his back, leading to more medical expenses and a need for another surgery as well as injury to his ear due to the flash grenade, but Carr suffered her third heart attack after the raid.
Then there is the psychological trauma that has turned their lives upside down where they both have been going through therapy.
“Alisa’s and Avery’s sense of peace, privacy, security, and comfort in their home has been lost because of the raid,” the claim states. “Alisa and Avery no longer feel safe in their own home.”
Watch the video from the Institute for Justice below.