Roxboro woman, NAACP reps give details on 'no-knock' raid at her home; seizure of dog

My name is Michael Mohammed and I'm the investigative officer

2023-07-27

for the Granville County

I guess you're wondering why is the Granville County involved

in person county issues I think let me explain how

this came about

I live in Oxford and there were two young women

that reported the issues to me about Sheila

One of the sisters were from Henderson

The other one was from Durham

They spoke about Sheila being violated by the Roxboro Police

here in Roxboro Sheila is here

It is from Roxborough because of the encounter that was

so deeply entrenched

I immediately contacted the president of the Granville County and

as well as informed the president of the Person County

chapter of the CP as well

You see we all agree on an ideology and we

agree on this philosophy of of Dr King saying Dr

King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

everywhere

So in other words we don't have any problems with

crossing these lines

Those count of lines is insignificant to us

We are about justice along with other members of the

person county community

We attended the City Council meeting to express our concerns

about what had happened

Sheila expressed deeply about the things that the officers had

done to her within her own home on January 6

but apparently it fell on deaf ears

It was only after I had written to the council

as a follow up that the mayor responded back and

said they had launched an internal investigation

Of course we never seen the results of that internal

investigation

We have also met with the city manager and we've

also attempted to meet with the chief of police concerning

this matter

The city manager showed no compassion

In fact he was more devoted to order than to

justice

He seemed to be annoyed with our presence

The police chief flat out rejected or refused to meet

us all together

He was citing because of some of our members within

the Roxboro community that he had a problem with and

that's the reason why he couldn't meet with us

However it's hard to see that these rogue officers are

now have run amok

They are following this as their as their superiors are

are laying out for them

So it's really a systemic problem that we have within

the police department here in the city of Roxborough

So before I yield to attorney Schull who was she's

legal representative I want to expand on the matter a

little bit a search warrant that allows an officer to

force his way into someone's residence by simply knocking and

announcing it's called they call it a no knock warrant

It is police tactics that is justified in the state

of North Carolina under those conditions where there must be

surveillance there must be some form of investigation that's taking

place

There must be reasonable suspicion along with proper cars that

are all established that illegal activities are taking place within

the home

Usually there are activities such as manufacturing and distributing illegal

substances but I can assure you this is not the

case regarding Sheila

It's nowhere near those circumstances

I want to make it perfectly clear that a no

knock search warrant was not justified in this case involving

Sheila Tab

And the only reason why these officers went to Sheila's

house from the very beginning is because to make an

inquiry about a dog which they had no legal authority

to do and then they took the dog from her

That was their first mistake

Therefore everything that would spring forward from that point would

be illegal as well

So without any further delay I would like to introduce

to you Attorney Abrams

Thank you sir

Thank you to everyone for being here today

Thank you to Mr Mohammed to Miss Tap

Of course and to everybody else with us all the

members of the NAACP and everyone else who is here

This incident never should have occurred

We should not be here

The Roxboro Police Department never should have shown up to

Miss Tap's hope

What we know is that Detective Cox on his own

regard without a 911 call without a police report without

reporting anything to the station went to her house to

allegedly get a dog and he claimed that Sheila had

stolen a dog

Now whether or not he did this as a favor

for a friend or we cannot be sure it was

wrong

He did not have authority to do it and he

should not have been there

Second he compounded the problem when after Sheila had the

dignity to stand up for herself and tell him that

what he was doing was wrong

He claimed that he smelled marijuana and went back to

the police station to get a search warrant to get

his colleagues to get a swat style raid of her

home

Now by a swat style raid

I mean police officers armed with assault rifles armed with

weapons with body armor to knock down her door with

a battering ram

We are not at war on the streets of Roxborough

over the smell of marijuana

This is not something that should be happening to anyone's

home

And so what happens after that The police come 789

10 of them they come with a battering ram

They come with guns they come with body armor and

they bang down her door as she is in the

shower they order her on the ground naked and they

hold her while they search her home

So as a community what you all need to ask

yourselves what the city council needs to ask itself

What the chief of police and the police department needs

to ask itself is if this is the type of

activity you want do you want your taxpayer money going

towards this Do you want your elected officials supporting this

And the answer hopefully is no

And so the city council and the police have the

power to help make this right and to help make

sure this doesn't happen to anyone else

Thank you everybody

And now you'll hear from his tech

first

I would like to start off by saying this situation

has changed me

I cannot trust the police

I do not sleep at night

I am terribly afraid

I would not want this to happen to anybody

Nobody not my worst enemy

Um I didn't deserve this

I really didn't

Um The feeling is bad

You know I can't sleep at night

I just I'm just not comfortable at home anymore

If I'm in the shower I hear any type of

noise my legs shake my hand shake

I just wanna be myself again

Um I feel like everything was taken from me and

on this day my life changed and I just wish

that um this never happens to anybody else ever again

I hope that this may cause some change here in

person County

Thank everybody

Good job

If anybody has any questions we'll answer a couple

that depends on what the city's response is

And if we're able to work with them before that

when you went to the City Council four days after

you said that you could hear him

Yes there was at my front door at first knocking

while I was in the shower I was hollering

I'm in the shower

As I got out of my shower I opened my

bathroom door when I opened my bathroom door

That's when they used the ramp to bust down my

back door my front door was open

I was in the shower and I can help answer

this too

So what police often do now to get around the

no knock requirement is they knock and then they immediately

enter

So another way to call it is a quick knock

right But for all intents and purposes it is a

no knock or a way to get around the no

knock requirement because what you're doing is knocking and then

immediately entering

And so it doesn't actually give a person the opportunity

to come to the door to answer the door and

to prevent their door from being knocked down

Right

And so you know the whole reason why we have

this knock requirement is to prevent violence to the homeowner

but also to prevent violence to the police officer because

we all know that there are lots and lots of

cases where officers have knocked down someone's door and the

officer has been shot or the person inside has been

shot

And so that is why we are asking that this

be reserved for the worst type of violent offender that

it should not be used in a misdemeanor marijuana case

So the short answer is yes they did not

But then they immediately entered the day that visit

No nothing has been replaced the door everything is still

the same way

So I've had to sleep in my home without my

doors being on the hinges

Ever since they did this to me the dog situation

the search warrants is through the poison

It should not have ever been

Sure

Yeah I think that there is an argument that you

know it was illegal from the very beginning that that

officer should not have been at her home

I also think that there is a serious question as

to whether that officer actually smelled marijuana you know this

was in the morning you know so it appears that

what this officer did may have been retaliatory because Sheila

was unhappy with him taking her pet dog

Thank you

All

All right guys

Good job man

I wanna thank the brothers and sister from for for

coming and around brother Maurice with the Black Panther party

Thank you very much Reverend Msha

I thank you sir

I appreciate you Scottie Brooks

I appreciate you sir

Dwayne Coleman

He's vice president of WCP in Grand County Mobile Car

as well

Reverend Winstead president of the person county NCP

Thank you for being here

Reverend

Appreciate you brother John Party

Thank you sir brother John Miles out of Henderson

We have a coalition of brothers and sisters that we

pull together to address these issues across these lines

And thank you very much for the press for being

here

Thank you very much