‘He Is a Ticking Time Bomb’: Black Man Vows to Fight Against Texas Cop Who Forced Himself Into Home and Treated Family ‘Like Dogs’ After Responding to Wrong Apartment
It’s been four weeks since a Texas cop forced his way into the home of Elvin Turner and his mother without a warrant after responding to the wrong address over a domestic violence call, threatening to taser and arrest the Black man for trying to assert his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizures.
And not only has the Frisco Police Department insisted they broke no laws on Jan. 23, citing “exigent circumstances,” the 43-year-old information technology worker is having difficultly finding an attorney to represent him in a possible civil suit.
But that has not stopped Turner from using existing public records laws to obtain all the evidence surrounding the incident, including body camera footage, the 911 call to dispatch, and the police reports where cops tried to justify the invasion into a private home of an innocent family.
Turner’s main goal is to get the cop who entered his home, Ryan Shick, fired.
“He is a ticking time bomb waiting to happen for the city of Frisco,” Turner said in a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star. “I feel very anxious and very sorry for the individual that catches this guy or that he pulls them over or he comes to their house on a bad day.”
Body camera videos show Shick was uncertain if he had even shown up to the right apartment as he stood outside Turner’s unit for more than two minutes before knocking, telling the dispatcher he did not hear any yelling or screaming coming from inside the apartment which was the entire basis for the 911 call.
The dispatcher told him he was at the right address even though the 911 recording showed the caller was not even sure what apartment the yelling was coming from.
And despite his uncertainty at first, Shick began treating them like criminals once Elvin opened the door, revealing himself and his mother to be Black even though both mother and son informed him he was at the wrong apartment.
“I don’t think we do,” said Shick, referencing their downstairs neighbor who had called, even though she was unsure of the exact apartment she was calling about.
“Can I come in to make sure nobody’s hurt and then I’ll leave?” Shick asked, but Elvin told him no.
“Otherwise, I’m about to force your door open,” Shick said as he shoved the door open and pointed a Taser at Elvin’s chest while entering the home.
Shick then entered his mother’s room and rummaged through her closet before walking across the apartment to enter Elvin’s bedroom.
“Do not go in my bedroom, sir,” said Elvin.
“I’m going to have to arrest you for interfering,” threatened Shick.
Elvin’s mother, Lisa Turner, told her son to just let the cop search his room because she was terrified that he would be killed.
“I just knew they were going to kill my son,” she said in the same telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star.
“The only thing on my mind is that this is my son and he is a Black man, and they don’t care about taking them out, whether we right or wrong, they don’t care.”
Once the cops had left their home, both Elvin and Lisa ran back out into the hallway to beckon Frisco Police Sgt. Stephen Goodwin back inside their home, who had remained professional and did not enter their home. The video shows they led the sergeant to their balcony to point out the actual unit where the screaming was coming from, which was on the floor beneath them.
“As a Black man in this country, we’re always guilty and proven innocent, so I felt I had to vindicate myself and my mother that they were at the wrong place,” Elvin explained.
And he is correct, judging by the number of times cops have entered the homes of innocent Black citizens and treated them like criminals.
Watch the video below:
White Couple Gets Soft Approach
The body camera videos show the cops taking a much softer approach when dealing with the white woman living at the actual unit they were supposed to respond to in the first place.
In fact, it took two-and-a-half minutes for the woman to open the door, and only after one of the cops called dispatch to obtain her name, who evidently was familiar with the woman because police had responded to her apartment on previous occasions.
It was only after the cops called out her name, “Jessica,” that she opened the door but the cops did not seem to mind that it took her so long to open the door.
“They more or less gave them a tap on their shoulders and here we were not guilty of nothing but treated us like we were dogs,” Lisa said.
“I felt very violated. They disrespected me and my son’s privacy, this is our home, we lived here, but then you couldn’t take our word that it was just us, and you saw us?”
“But they didn’t believe us and I will say it’s because we are Black. The little white couple, it’s OK, everything is good. But they look at us as nobody, but we are somebody.”
Elvin agreed with his mother after viewing the footage showing how differently the cops treated the white woman compared to how they were treated. The videos show a cop entering the home to speak to the woman’s boyfriend but the portion showing the conversation was redacted.
“They were very caring. They were very coddling,” Elvin said about the police interaction with the white woman.
“So, yes, there’s just no comparison comparing the aggression that my mother and I received, who were innocent, to the offending apartment and the way that the officers treated them.”
Both mother and son said they are still traumatized over the incident and have lost all trust in the police even though neither has been arrested in the past.
“Once they forced themselves into our home, not only were we personally violated, but our safe space that we call home was violated,” Elvin said.“So we no longer feel safe in our own home.”
His mother said she is still a “nervous wreck” and gets up several times a night to ensure the front door is locked even though they never worried about such things in the five years they lived there.
“It plays in my mind all the time about them coming in,” she said.
Elvin Turner’s Battle
Elvin and Lisa wasted no time in fighting back, driving to the Frisco Police Department to file a complaint but were told the cops had the right to enter the home under exigent circumstances, which is described by a Texas lawyer website as follows:
“Exigent circumstances refer to situations where law enforcement officers are permitted to take immediate action without obtaining a warrant. This often happens when there is an urgent need to prevent harm, destruction of evidence, or the escape of a suspect.”
But once Elvin opened the door to his apartment, there was little evidence to indicate there was an urgent need to prevent harm as both mother and son confirmed everything was fine – not to mention the 911 caller was not even sure exactly what apartment the screaming was coming from. And the video shows there are hundreds of apartments in the building.
“Officers used exigent circumstances to enter into my and my mother’s apartment and my understanding is a test that must be passed,” Elvin said.
“Was there someone screaming? No, there was not. Did you see a disheveled or disorganized apartment? No, you did not. Did you see someone laying on the floor? Did you hear anyone begging for help? None of that existed. As you can clearly see from the video me, and my mother were very calm when we answered the door. None of us looked as if we were in distress physically or verbally.”
Since the incident, Turner has been making public records requests through the Frisco police website but has been charged $130 for the public records, which he sees as a hindrance to keeping citizens from obtaining these records.
“I mean, we’ve known people who didn’t have $100 to make bail, so if people don’t have the resources to do this, would they have been able to get the information they requested?”
Turner’s biggest lesson from this experience is to never open the door for the police if you do not call them.
“Speak with them through the door and let things play out from there,” he said. “The second thing is, as a Black man, we need to know our rights. And not only do we need to know our rights, but we need to learn how to follow through on things such as filing an informal or formal complaint and following that process until you get the outcome you deserve.”
He said the few attorneys he has reached out to have not shown much interest in his case but he will continue fighting back regardless if he obtains legal representation or not.
“I will try my damnest to make sure (Shick) is not part of that organization,” he said.