Maryland Briefing

STATE LEGISLATURE

Panel Hears From Residents About SWAT Team Excesses

Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo testified yesterday before a General Assembly committee about a botched police raid on his home that resulted in the shooting death of his two black labs -- but he was not alone.

Several other residents also shared their stories about SWAT team raids on their homes with the Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee, which is weighing a bill that would impose new reporting requirements about the use of paramilitary SWAT teams by police departments.

One man told the committee that police threatened to shoot his dog when they raided his home and accused him of e-mailing bomb threats. He was never charged.

Karen Thomas, a Howard County resident, told of an early morning raid on her home in which police shot and killed her 10-year-old dog and forced her to lie on the floor at gunpoint. They were looking for her son, who was not home at the time.

No drugs were found in the home. Thomas's son was later charged with selling one gram of marijuana to an undercover police officer and sentenced to two years' probation, Thomas told the committee.

-- Rosalind S. Helderman

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

10 Displaced, None Hurt in Fire In Gaithersburg; Heater Blamed

A fire at a single-family home in Gaithersburg yesterday displaced 10 residents but injured no one, Montgomery County authorities said.

The fire in the 7000 block of Cypress Hill Drive broke out about 1:40 p.m., according to Pete Piringer, spokesman for the county fire department.