Assistant Chief Arnold Williams.png

Detroit Police Assistant Chief Arnold Williams

After conducting surveillance for less than a day, police were convinced they'd identified a human-trafficking operation inside an east Detroit home.

Based on information police were acting upon, investigators believed underage girls were enslaved inside the home on the 2700 block of Livernois, being raped, prostituted and forced to inject heroin, Detroit Police Assistant Chief Arnold Williams said in an interview Wednesday.

But police got it wrong. SWAT members barged into the home Tuesday night to execute a search warrant.

"Everybody who was in the location, they were taken down to the ground," Williams said. "There was one individual who was in the shower. They removed him from the shower, put him down on the ground as well.

"Upon further investigation where we executed the search warrant, we discovered that this was not the actual location."

Police didn't explain what they believe led them to the wrong house.

Assistant chief explains human-trafficking raid at wrong house:

Despite apologizing, Williams said the police acted appropriately and the situation was "one of those things that are unfortunate."

"Sometimes mistakes happen" and "apologies were made," Williams said.

The investigation began when an underage girl arrived at an area hospital with track marks -- police say heroin injections forced upon her by traffickers -- and claimed she'd escaped the house on Livernois where she was "slave-trafficked" and drugged with heroin over a four-month period. .

The victim told investigators multiple other underage girls were inside enduring the same torment.

Williams said surveillance was set up Tuesday and police observed two girls or young women exiting the rear of a green SUV one street over. They walked to the Livernois home, he said.

Based on that information, along with the victim's statements, Williams said that was enough to secure a search warrant.

"Everything that we did, I would see the officers executing the same way if we had to do it again," Williams said, "the exact same way."

He hopes the residents take into account "what was at stake," an underage sex-trafficking operation.

The assistant chief said the witness's information appears to be "valid" and the investigation into a sex-trafficking operation continues.

According to WJBK-TV, Fox 2 News reporter Amy Lange, residents at the home that was mistakenly raided claim Detroit police never presented a search warrant.

"Some search warrants, in the language of the search warrant, it says, 'to be sealed,' and what that means is that a copy of the search warrant will not be left at the location," Williams said. "And hopefully, if (police) were asked to show a search warrant, it was shown to them, and if it wasn't ... it should have been."

The residents of the home, a family, have since filed a formal complaint against the Detroit police.

"We do offer our apologies," Williams said. " ... So once that complaint is investigated ... if we did something wrong, we're going to be responsible."