Ohio police use stun grenade during raid on home where toddler was connected to ventilator

(CNN) — Police in Elyria, Ohio, used a flash-bang grenade last week during a raid on a home where a toddler was attached to a ventilator, newly released body camera footage shows. The mother says her son was injured during the episode.

Body camera footage of the eight officers was released Tuesday by the office of Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker, who requested an outside investigation into the Jan. 10 incident and how a search warrant was obtained for the home.

According to a police report released Tuesday by the city, the warrant was issued as part of an ongoing investigation involving several stolen weapons found at a separate residence.

The mother, who identified herself as Courtney Price in the body camera footage, told CNN affiliate WOIO that her son, Waylon, was diagnosed with chemical pneumonitis, a form of lung inflammation, after the raid. Price said the condition was caused by inhaling chemicals released by flash explosions.

However, police said in a statement that the devices “do not burn continuously and do not deploy pepper spray or chemical agents.”

“Any allegations suggesting the child was exposed to chemical agents, lack of medical care or neglect are not true,” the Elyria Police Department said in a statement.

In the footage, police officers are located outside the home shortly after 2:00pm local time and one police officer shouts: “Police search warrant, come to the door!”

About 10 seconds later, an officer uses a pole to fire a grenade through one of the windows, shattering it. Another grenade was also used in the driveway, according to the police report, which added: “This method of delivery was controlled and intended to cause a deliberate distraction.”

Officers then entered through the front door with a battering ram and confronted the mother, who came out of the home with her hands raised, the footage shows. His face is obscured in the body camera video. She is then handcuffed and is heard explaining to the police that the house belongs to her uncles and that she lives with them.

In a video, the woman revealed that she and her son were the only people in the house at that time. She tells officers that her son has a pre-existing medical condition and is on a ventilator inside. An officer searching the home sees the baby in a crib near the crib and the sound of medical equipment can be heard as the video shows. The woman is later taken upstairs, where she speaks to officers about her son’s condition.

Police said in their statement that a woman and her 17-month-old son were found inside the house. According to the statement, detectives, paramedics and the mother “assessed the child’s condition and confirmed that he had no visible and apparent injuries.”

“The child was attached to several machines and was far away from the broken window,” the police report said, adding that the child appeared to be “harmed.”

The names of the mother and child were redacted in documents released by the city.

Price, 25, told WOIO she was the woman who spoke with police inside the home. Her aunt, Redia Jennings, told the affiliate that she and her husband had been renting the house for the past year. Property records obtained by CNN show Jennings lives at the address raided by police.

Price said as the raid unfolded, she was stunned when the lights came on, smoke filled the house and police came through the front door.

“I didn’t know what to do because they were pointing guns at me,” Price told the affiliate. “I wanted to run to (my son) but I knew if I ran to him they might shoot him.”

Jennings said the teenager police were looking for hadn’t lived at the home for more than a year, but they showed up at the home about five times looking for him.

In one video, an officer asks, “Is there just a girl and a child?” And another officer replies, “I guess. The target was at the school.”

The mayor has asked the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the incident and how the warrant was obtained.

“While the captured images clearly show what did and did not happen when the search warrant was executed, it does not answer questions about what prompted the warrant,” Mayor Brubaker said.

Jennings told WOIO that the family plans to take legal action against the police department and will move into a new home this week.

CNN reached out to Mayor Brubaker, the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office and Courtney Price.

CNN’s Sharif Paget, Ian Kaner and Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.