POLICE APOLOGIZE FOR STORMING HOUSE

Innocent Saanich Family Still Feeling Effects Of Emergency Response Team Raid

Patty Cushing can still see the gun pointed at her face.

On May 16, police raided what they suspected was a base for
manufacturing crystal meth and other illegal drugs.

Cushing lay on the bathroom floor of her Regina Avenue home as they
searched, tears pouring off her face, urine trickling down her leg.

"I kept saying, 'There's no drugs here,'" she remembers. "They
wouldn't believe me."

Yesterday, Saanich police publicly apologized for the raid, which
turned up nothing. The Cushings call the apology "a good first step"
in an ordeal that's left them shaken and searching for answers.

"The people I assumed would protect me, traumatized me," Cushing
said. "Tomorrow will be Day 7 and it's not near over."

Cushing, her husband Mark and their daughter Jean were all in the
house the afternoon of the raid. Patty was cooking in the kitchen
while Jean watched Canada play at the world hockey championships.

Suddenly, the front and back doors burst open and more than a dozen
SWAT and police members poured in, Patty said.

The family didn't know how to react. Patty assumed police had the
wrong house. Jean didn't recognize the black uniforms of the Greater
Victoria Emergency Response Team and assumed the house was being robbed.

"She thought they were going to rape her," said her sister Robin, 19,
who was not in the house during the raid. "I can't even imagine what
that would feel like."

The family lay on their floor for 45 minutes as police searched their
house for crystal meth. Eventually, they were handcuffed, read their
rights and taken to the Saanich police station. "We were there for
another two hours," Patty said. "Eventually they said they made a
mistake and apologized. I told them I wanted a public apology."

Saanich police say the raid was instigated by an informant who had
proved accurate in the past. The information, which was then
corroborated by other sources, suggested the house was a clandestine
synthetic drug lab.

Because of the severe public risk posed by these labs, immediate
action was necessary, said Sgt. John Price, public information
officer for the Saanich police.

"The information we had suggested this significant hazard to the
public" Price said. "This is the only incident I can remember where
we've gone into a completely innocent environment."

Price said that police have since flagged the informant as
"untrustworthy" and reviewed what exactly went wrong. They have also
assigned a senior officer to help the family with their concerns.

"We want the neighbours to know we were wrong and this family did
nothing to deserve this," Price said.

The Cushings accept the police apology, but say the only support they
received was a telephone number for victim's services. When Robin
called, the agency refused to offer counselling.

"They told us we weren't the victims of crime," Robin said.

A week after the raid, Jean is afraid to go out at night and has
trouble sleeping or being alone.

Patty has not been able to work as a receptionist at the Broadmead
Hearing Clinic because she fears leaving the house. She has also
begun drinking more and smoking two packs a day.

A meeting between the Cushings and senior officers of the Saanich
police will take place this afternoon. The family, who will also meet
with a lawyer tomorrow, say they want to ensure this never happens again.