COPS' TRAGIC GRENADE RAID

Storm Wrong Apt., Woman Dies

A Harlem woman died of a heart attack after police hurled a flash grenade
into her apartment during a mistaken raid yesterday morning.

Heavily armed NYPD Emergency Service Unit cops smashed down the woman's door
at 310 W. 143rd St., believing that guns and drugs were in the sixth-floor
apartment, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Instead, they found Alberta Spruill, 57, a beloved church member and
longtime city employee, who was getting ready to go to work when the grenade
went off about 6:10 a.m. - creating a deafening boom and a blinding flash.

Cops handcuffed Spruill, who cried as cops began probing her tidy,
two-bedroom apartment. A police captain quickly realized cops had hit the
wrong location, Kelly said.

Officers immediately uncuffed Spruill and asked if she was hurt. She
initially refused medical attention but told cops she had a heart condition.

At 6:32 a.m., Spruill felt chest pains and was rushed to Harlem Hospital.
She went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and died at the hospital about
8 a.m. - less than two hours after her home was invaded.

Tina Zambrana, who lives across the hall, said, "I heard the boom. Police
shouted, 'Get down!' The lady was screaming. They invaded her apartment. In
the hall, she was screaming, 'I can't breathe! I can't breathe!' She was
coughing."

"We're deeply saddened," Kelly said yesterday. "It's a tragedy. This should
not have happened."

The ESU commander who authorized the flash grenade was placed on modified
duty, and use of the explosive devices was suspended yesterday, Kelly said.

Police targeted Spruill's apartment because of information given to 25th
Precinct patrol officers by a confidential informant.

The informant walked into the stationhouse last month saying he had
information about a narcotics ring operated by a convicted drug dealer named
Melvin Boswell.

Boswell, 35, stashed his cocaine, heroin and guns in apartment 6F at 310 W.
143rd St. - a rent-subsidized high-rise building, the informant told cops.

The NYPD obtained a warrant for the apartment, which listed Spruill as its
only tenant, after the informant pointed to her door and said he had seen
drugs and guns inside on at least three occasions, Kelly said.

Pointed To The Door

The informant also said Boswell, who lives on the building's ninth floor,
visited the apartment with a gun in his waistband and a pit bull at his
side.

"The confidential informant physically pointed to the door," Kelly said. "We
were told people did visit the apartment."

Boswell, a career criminal with seven arrests for drug dealing and assault,
was busted Monday with a large quantity of narcotics, bolstering the
informant's story, Kelly said.

The word of the informant, also an admitted drug dealer, was enough for a
Manhattan judge to issue a no-knock warrant, which gave cops the right to
take down Spruill's door but did not authorize the use of the flash grenade,
Kelly said.

In the raid, six ESU cops and six 25th Precinct cops burst into Spruill's
home, Kelly said.

"The flash grenade was used based on the belief there have been guns in the
house and a dog in the house," Kelly said. "In hindsight, it wasn't
warranted."

Use of flash grenades is authorized only in high-risk tactical entries,
according to an NYPD memo issued in 1996 titled "guidelines for the use of
diversionary devices."

This year, cops have used flash grenades 85 times during the execution of
nearly 1,900 warrants, Kelly said. The devices were used 150 times last
year.

The Internal Affairs Bureau also launched a full-scale investigation into
the botched raid, Kelly said. Internal Affairs will determine whether police
officers were misled by the informant and whether cops used the flash
grenade properly, Kelly said.

Mayor's Apology

Mayor Bloomberg extended his condolences to relatives and friends of
Spruill, who had worked for the Department of Citywide Administrative
Services for 29 years.

"I am deeply saddened by the tragic death of Alberta Spruill. My heart goes
out to her family, and I join all city employees in grieving the loss of our
dedicated and hardworking colleague," he said. "Police Commissioner Raymond
Kelly will be conducting a full investigation into this terrible episode."

Apologies were not enough for Spruill's neighbors and loved ones. They
described her as a devout churchgoer whose home never would have been raided
had police done their homework and seen that she was a simple woman who
loved her job and her family.

"I don't know why they should break into somebody's home," said Mildred
Quarles, 73, who has been friends with Spruill since they moved into the
building in 1980. "Sorry don't cut it. How are you going to explain it to
her family and to her child?"

Assemblyman Keith Wright (D-Harlem) said he was outraged by Spruill's death
and vowed to draft legislation to curtail the NYPD's use of search warrants.

"This is absolutely horrible," Wright said. "This is not a new problem with
police going to the wrong apartment, and this is not the first time we have
seen tragic results.

"Anyone could have a heart attack with someone pounding down their door like
that," he said. "Police cannot be so cavalier with their search warrants."