FBI Swat Team Busts Teenagers For "Hanging Out"

http://Mediafilter.org/guest/Pages/August.14.1998.20.54.46

This Event Happened in Elizabewthtown, PA
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An FBI Fiasco Gun-toting agents stop teen-agers in E-town Brian M. Christopher Intelligencer Journal Staff An FBI SWAT team participating in a training exercise invaded Elizabethtown square Wednesday night and searched a dozen youths at gunpoint before realizing the teen-agers were not part of the exercise, according to witnesses and the FBI. The agents were among several hundred FBI agents and support personnel from offices in Philadelphia, Virginia and New York who were in the area this week. They were participating in what the FBI calls a "practical problem, or scenario, which is used to test procedures in a real setting, when Wednesday's incident happened, an FBI spokesperson said. "When one of the problems was happening Wednesday night, they (the agents) ended up getting some of the locals involved," Dave Malarney, senior resident FBI agent in Harrisburg, said. The "locals" were six teenagers in a car and six others standing nearby on a sidewalk in the square about 9:45 p.m. Witnesses said the agents pointed guns at the youths, forced them face-down on the pavement, handcuffed them and searched them. The incident lasted about 30 minutes until agents at the scene realized something was amiss. The FBI would not discuss details of the scenario being tested, but did say that two SWAT teams - one from Philadelphia and the other from New York - had been involved in the exercise. Jerri Williams, an FBI spokesperson from Philadelphia, said it was the New York agents who mixed it up with the Elizabethtown youths. She said the agents from Philadelphia had completed their part of the scenario. A spokesperson at the FBI office in New York said he was unaware of the incident. Both Williams and Malarney stressed that no local police were involved in detaining the youths. The public was not notified about the exercise, but the FBI did inform local police departments. Williams said these exercises take place in real locations for a reason. "It's being prepared, being ready for any situation that can occur," she said. "We need to run it in a populated area to make it as real as possible. The youths involved said it was a little too real for them. "They (the agents) kept saying, 'Are you part of it? Are you part of it?'" said Susan Lassiter, 19, who was standing with friends in the first block of East Market Street when the agents arrived. "Part of what?" I said."That's what we were all saying. Part of what?'" Completely decked out with body armor and helmets,but reportedly using unloaded hand guns and automatic rifles, the agents detained the youths be cause of the car some youths were riding in. The agents apparently thought the car was somehow tied to the training exercise. "The condition of the car caused them to notice it," Williams said. She declined to elaborate on what it was about the Ford station wagon that piqued the agents' interest. However, witnesses to the incident believe a prominent feature of the car holds the answer. On Sept. 17 Terry Lee Henry, 18, of Elizabethtown, and Sarah Joy Yellets, 16, of Columbia, died when they were thrown from a car that was being driven by another Columbia teen-ager on a Conoy Township road, police said. Several days after the crash, Tonya Leggore, 18, a friend of Henry's decorated the family car with a tribute in white shoe polish. "We will miss you, Terry" and Beep in memory of Terry" was written across the rear of the car. One of the teens involved in the incident., who asked not to be identified, said an FBI agent said the scenario involved a connection to the current trial of Terry Nichols for his alleged role in the Oklahoma City bombing. Also, Leggore had been cruising with her friends in the car earlier in the day near the Maytown Airport, which reportedly was being used by the FBI during the exercise. "They (the agents.) followed us in a Suburban all the way into Rheerns," said Steve Stahl, 18, who was riding in the car with Leggore. "Then, all of a sudden, they were gone." But not for long. A caravan of assorted slow-moving vehicles - including vans, a large, four-door pickup truck and sedans - cruised into Elizabethtown and approached the square where Leggore had parked her car to talk to friends. "We were all there just talking," Lassiter said, The vehicles stopped at the intersection for several minutes as the group of teens looked on. The vehicles all stood still through two green lights. And then the doors opened. About 30 agents stormed into the street and moved toward the group of youths, witnesses said. The youths confronted by the gun-toting agents, were shoved up agdinst the wall of a variety store and handcuffed with plastic flex-cuffs. "They were pushing me through the wall," Casey Frey, 15, said. After being cuffed, all of them were forced onto the sidewalk while the agents determined what had happened. "One guy (an agent) started yelling and it was pretty obvious that they knew something was wrong," said 19-year old Jason Schwanger. After Leggore's car was searched, witnesses said the agents began cutting the plastic cuffs off the youths. As Schwanger stood with his friends, still unsure what had just happened, one agent told him, "Don't worry, this was just a training exercise. It was just a game." But a serious game for the FBI, which has admitted the error, Williams said. "We have taken responsibility for what happened. But this was not a blunder or a goof. When you try to make it as real as possible you are in an area where there is a possibility for a mistake and unfortunately that's what happened," she said.

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