Family held at gunpoint as SWAT team raids and destroys wrong NC home, suit says
After a North Carolina family’s former home was damaged by a storm, they had a new house built at the same address. Then, within a year, it was destroyed by a SWAT team searching for a suspect who wasn’t there, a new federal lawsuit says.
The SWAT team raided the wrong Pender County residence after midnight on April 10, 2024, when Alisa Carr, her fiancé Avery Marshall and their two children awoke to the shouts of deputies shattering glass, breaching the home’s front door and detonating flash-bang grenades, according to a complaint filed April 1.
Carr, Marshall, their son who was 9 at the time and the couple’s 16-year-old daughter were held at gunpoint by deputies armed with “military-grade” weapons from the Pender County and Lee County sheriff’s offices, the complaint says.
At one point, Marshall, who was ordered to lie down on the floor on top of broken glass, begged as he watched a deputy aim his gun at his 9-year-old, shining the weapon’s laser scope light on the boy’s face, according to the complaint.
Marshall couldn’t get up because a deputy was stepping on his back, the complaint says. The father had recently undergone back surgery, according to the filing, which says the pressure from the deputy’s foot exposed his back stitches from the procedure.
“The worst part of this whole nightmare was laying on the ground, not being able to do anything, while cops have an AR pointed in my son’s face,” Marshall said in an April 2 news release by the Institute for Justice, the nonprofit law firm representing the family.
“All I could do was yell ‘he’s 9-years-old,’” Marshall recalled. “I still lose sleep over it, and I know he does too.”
A day later, the suspect deputies had sought in connection with vehicles being broken into and robbed was found in a different county and taken into custody, according to the Institute for Justice.
House left with property damage
Following the nighttime raid, the family’s home is still in disrepair, the lawsuit says. They’ve been left with at least $11,396 in property damage, according to the filing.
“Alisa, Avery, and some of their relatives cleaned the house as much as they could, but Alisa and Avery cannot afford to repair the damaged property, which remains broken,” the complaint says.
Now, Carr, 52, Marshall, 49, and the Institute for Justice want accountability from law enforcement, the nonprofit said in the news release.
Their lawsuit accuses deputies of carrying out the raid based on insufficient evidence. The filing names Pender County, county Sheriff Alan Cutler, Lee County, county Sheriff Brian Estes and several deputies as defendants.
According to a statement shared with McClatchy News on April 3 by Pender County Sgt. C. Ward, the county’s deputies became involved after the Lee County Sheriff’s Office asked for help “in serving a high risk warrant” on a Pender County home.
“Lee County officers had applied for and received the warrant which was reviewed and issued by a Superior Court Judge,” Ward said. “The warrant was served on April 10, 2024, but the suspect was not present and subsequently was arrested in a different jurisdiction.”
The Pender County Sheriff’s Office will respond to the lawsuit’s accusations in court according to Ward, who said the office fully believes their “officers acted properly.”
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment April 3.
Why the family’s home was raided
According to the lawsuit, Carr and Marshall’s home was targeted based on Verizon cellphone location data and Carr’s Nissan vehicle, which is the same brand of a car linked to the suspect.
Deputies believed the suspect’s phone location data showed he was within 52 meters of Carr and Marshall’s residence, the complaint says.
“The officers did not do their due diligence before conducting this raid, and they misled the magistrate into issuing the warrant without probable cause,” Institute for Justice attorney Marie Miller said in a statement.
“Nissans are one of the most common cars,” Miller said, while adding, “If police had taken a minute to observe or look up basic information about Alisa’s car, this entire traumatizing raid would have been avoided.”
While Carr was interrogated inside her home during the raid, she began having heart palpitations and struggled to breathe, according to the Institute for Justice.
Carr, who had two prior heart attacks before the event, was taken to the hospital in an ambulance for treatment, the law firm said.
In addition to property damage, the raid has caused the family of four to experience ongoing mental and emotional hardship, the law firm said.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
“I don’t even feel safe living in my own home anymore because of what happened that night,” Carr said in a statement.
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Family held at gunpoint as SWAT team raids and destroys wrong NC home, suit says."
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