3 Nashville Police Officers Suspended After Raid Hits Wrong Apartment

Two Nashville Metro Police supervisors and an officer have been removed from duty after police raided the wrong apartment, terrifying a Black woman and two children.

Azaria Hines told News4 Nashville she just finished a late shift at her job and was home sleeping on the couch unclothed, when she heard loud banging at her door. Before Hines could react, police came bursting through her door with a battering ram, smashing the door frame and pointing guns at her.

Hines said her 15-year-old cousin and her 3-year-old nephew were inside the apartment at the time and now they’re traumatized by the incident.

“We are very much traumatized. Every time I think about it, I just want to cry,” Hines told News4. “I literally thought it was a dream. These kind of things need to stop. It just needs to stop.”

Hines said she reached to put on a shirt and was ordered by police to stop. After a few minutes, police came to Hines with an admission; they had the wrong apartment. The botched raid happened at Edgehill Apartments, an affordable-housing property in Nashville.

The incident is almost exactly the same as the situation in Kentucky that led to the death of Breonna Taylor. Taylor, an EMT worker, was shot eight times and killed March 13. The act occurred after officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department executed a search warrant at the wrong house

Interim Chief John Drake said during a press conference Wednesday that information from an outdated database led to the incident. Drake added the two supervisors and an officer at the West Precinct would be decommissioned while an investigation into the incident continues.

On Wednesday, Midtown Hills Commander Dwayne Greene met with Hines and apologized on behalf of the department. Hines said she accepted the apology but hopes the police will learn from the incident.

“These things can’t continue to happen because people are losing their lives,” Hines said. “I’m not a criminal. Like I was literally scared in my own home. I’m not really comfortable there.”

Drake admitted the department made a mistake and it won’t happen again, but Hines isn’t so sure.

“I hope the police department, I hope that everyone can be a little more kinder and be a little more cautious when it comes to things like this, because everybody is not a criminal,” Hines said.