Woman traumatized after police raid wrong home in Tenn.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) - Three Tennessee police officers are facing repercussions after they entered the wrong home in a botched police raid.

The dents made when police kicked in the front door of Azaria Hines’ home remain, along with the trauma of that morning.

“I feel violated. I feel embarrassed. I’m humiliated,” Hines said. “Everybody is all in my business. And all of this for nothing, for something that I had nothing to even do with.”

Police Chief John Drake decommissioned the officers after they raided the wrong address, using what he calls “excessive force.” They had reportedly been given outdated information given to them by the Metropolitan and Development Housing Agency.

“I’m holding on the door, like ‘wait a minute, I don’t have any clothes on. I don’t have any clothes on.’ Literally screaming it through the door,” Hines said. “And they’re like ‘step back, step back.’”

A police spokeswoman said an officer and community representative followed up with Hines the next day to make it right, bringing along groceries.

Hines said the bags of groceries are all wrong.

“Groceries is not what I need,” Hines said. “I need a peace of mind. I haven’t had any sleep since this happened.”

Davie Tucker, Hines’ family pastor, says the groceries show what implicit bias looks like.

“To me it suggests that single, Black female raising kids in a housing development needs groceries. That becomes a serious insult. At the very least, its totally insensitive,” Tucker said.

Tucker, who is a member of the Metro Human Relations Commission, recommended police undergo a more stringent victim sensitivity training, but he says they passed. Instead, they do a one-day tour of communities of color.

“That’s a dog and pony show,” Tucker said. “The greater need is for the police department to take this time to reimagine what policing looks like. And it doesn’t look like $200 in groceries from Aldi’s.”

Hines says she’s contacted the housing agency about getting a new place, but no one has responded. She says she and her kids can’t sleep and she worries police may come back looking for others who lived there and committed crimes.

A spokeswoman for MDHA says they are trying to find a place for her and could have an answer next week. Tucker suggested the also give her break on rent.

The housing agency says they stopped giving police resident information two years ago to protect people’s privacy. However, police still have access to an old database, which may be what they used before the raid.