Cops: Toddler Disfigured By Grenade in "No-Knock" Raid a "Criminal", To Blame For His Injuries | #JusticeForBouBou

By Jenn Fang. Cross-posted from Reappropriate.


Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh. (Photo credit: Phonesavanh family)
(H/T @boygainvillea)

Last year, nineteen month-old Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh was sleeping peacefully in his playpen in Habersham County, Georgia. The Phonesavanh family had recently moved to Georgia from Janesville, Wisconsin after their home had been destroyed in a fire, and the family -- including the four young Phonesavanh children -- were temporarily living in a converted guestroom of the house owned by Bounkham Phonesavanh's sister.

At 2 am on May 28, 2014, Bou Bou and his three older siblings were asleep when a team of militarized Habersham SWAT officers -- conducting a "no-knock" raid of the family home -- broke down the door and blindly threw a stun grenade into the room. The grenade landed in Bou Bou's playpen and exploded just inches from the toddler's face. Bou Bou immediately started screaming from the injuries of the devastating explosion: the grenade detached Bou Bou's nose, permanently disfiguring him, and create a gash in his chest that collapsed his left lung and prevented the infant from breathing on his own.

SWAT officers prevented Bou Bou's mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, from approaching her child. Instead, they downplayed the injuries; in a later interview, Alecia Phonesavanh recollects:

County refuses to help child injured by SWAT team grenade

The Phonesavanh family faces over $1 million in medical bills for little "Bou Bou."



Remember the baby in Georgia who was severely injured when a SWAT team threw a "flash bang" grenade in his crib during a botched drug raid? The child suffered serious burns to his face and chest, and his family has been left with over $1 million in medical bills that the county has refused to pay.

Family of Toddler Injured by SWAT 'Grenade' Faces $1M in Medical Bills

18-month-old Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh and his family were sleeping at their relatives' house, visiting from Wisconsin, when a police team burst into the home and tossed a grenade that landed and exploded in the crib. They were acting on an informant's tip that he had purchased drugs at the house earlier in the day.

They were wrong.

No criminal charges in botched police raid that injured baby

Bou "Baby Bou Bou" Phonesavanh was seriously injured when a flash grenade was thrown in his crib.


You've got to be kidding me. Remember that botched drug raid in Georgia, where police tossed a flash grenade into a crib, severely injuring a baby? A grand jury has declined to press any criminal charges against police.

Grand jury: No charges in drug raid that injured baby

Bou "Baby Bou Bou" Phonesavanh was hospitalized in May after members of Habersham County's Mountain NCIS Team, looking for a suspected drug dealer, threw a flash grenade into the playpen where the he was sleeping. The child's family, originally from Wisconsin, was staying at the home with a relative.

This week, a grand jury determined that while the team is guilty of shitty police work, there was "no evidence of criminal intent or criminal negligence" on the part of the officers. Really?

Toddler severely injured by grenade during police raid

19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh was sleeping when police tossed a "flash bang" into his crib



This is a horrifying story out of Georgia, where a toddler is in a medically-induced coma after being severely burned by a police "flash bang" grenade that was thrown in his crib during a late night drug raid.

Baby in Coma After Police 'Grenade' Dropped in Crib During Drug Raid

19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh and his family were sleeping at their relatives' house, visiting from Wisconsin, when a police team burst into the home early Wednesday morning. They were acting on an informant's tip that he had purchased methamphetamine at the house earlier in the day.

An officer tossed a flash bang -- used as a distraction device -- that landed in the child's playpen and detonated in his face. Bounkham, or "BouBou," suffered massive burns on his face and chest.

Authorities did not make any arrests, nor did they find anything at the house during the raid.