‘Mission to kill us': US family wants to sue FBI after accidental raid at home
A Georgia family is urging the US Supreme Court to let them sue FBI agents who mistakenly raided their home with flash bang grenades and firearms, terrifying them during a predawn operation gone wrong.
Curtrinia 'Trina' Martin, her seven-year-old son Gabe, and her fiancé Hillard 'Toi' Cliatt were asleep when agents battered down their door on 18 October 2017. Masked officers stormed in, detonated flash bang grenades, and dragged a half-naked Martin at gunpoint from her closet. Cliatt was pulled across the floor and handcuffed as several armed agents surrounded him. Gabe, hiding under his bedsheets, was left traumatised.
The mistake became clear only after an agent asked Cliatt to confirm his address — the team had meant to raid a similar-looking house four doors down. The agents simply walked out and conducted the operation at the correct location. One agent later returned to apologise.
But the damage was done.
'I thought someone was breaking in,' Martin told ABC News. 'It was so chaotic that I thought they had a mission, and the mission was to kill us.'
Gabe, now 13, told the outlet: 'I didn't really have a childhood growing up because of that… It really kind of changed me as a person.'
Martin says her son became anxious, began peeling paint off walls, pulling threads from clothes, and had to switch schools twice. The family is seeking to sue the agents under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which permits certain lawsuits against federal employees.
They argue the raid was negligent, wrongful, and preventable — agents had taken daytime photos, prepared notes, and distributed images, but still stormed the wrong house.
So far, lower courts have sided with the FBI, saying the agents 'simply made a mistake.' But during Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing, some justices raised eyebrows.
'No policy says don't break down the wrong door?' asked Justice Neil Gorsuch. 'Don't traumatize the occupants? Really?'
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson acknowledged law enforcement deserves protections — but questioned whether they applied here.
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