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Detroit Police Chief: Botched drug raid was 'embarrassing'

Posted at 5:49 PM, Nov 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-13 18:14:14-05

Two Detroit Police officers are off the streets and a supervisor is removed from special operations after a botched drug raid.

More than two dozen officers were heavily armed, one group conducting a drug raid, not knowing their targets were undercover officers posing as drug dealers.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig says this could have ended with deaths and could also result in criminal and administrative charges.

Craig said he is going to turn over findings to the prosecutor for possible assault charges, as some officers threw punches.

"They were like Keystone Cops," Craig said. "Very embarrassing to this organization."

The chief confirmed that officers from the 11th precinct conducted the raid, executing a search warrant when they confronted undercover officers posing as drug dealers from the 12th precinct.

Their supervisor, Craig says, may have provoked the clash.

"It appears that this supervisor did not have control of this situation," he said. "And had a tendency to get the officers from the 12th precinct excited."

Craig said the fight did not have to happen. There are several body cam videos, he said, that are key to the ongoing investigation by internal affairs.