At 2:30 AM on May 28th of last year, heavily armed officers from the Habersham County Police Department broke down the door of our home without warning. They were looking for a suspect who didn’t live there, and didn’t stop to check whether there were kids in the house, even though a minivan with car seats in it was parked in the driveway.

As they burst into the home I shared with my husband and four small children, one of them blindly threw a “flash-bang” stun grenade into the dark. It landed next to my baby, Bounkham (we call him Bou Bou), where he lay sleeping in his crib. When it exploded only inches away, it very nearly killed him.

The grenade blew parts of Bou Bou’s face almost completely off. It exposed the bones in his chest. He spent more than a month in the hospital recovering from injuries. For weeks, he was in a medically induced coma, and we were terrified we would lose him. The injuries and scars on his face and chest may never heal. It is a miracle that Bou Bou is alive.

We are eternally grateful to the doctors and nurses who kept our son alive. But the countless operations meant that by the time Bou Bou was able to come home, the cost of his medical treatments had risen to over $1 million. There’s simply no way our family can possibly cover those costs.

No one disputes that Habersham County police broke down our door because of a single piece of false information they got from a known criminal. No one disputes they were in the completely wrong house. And nobody disputes that a police officer threw a flash-bang grenade right next to my baby son which nearly killed him when it exploded.

Yet the Habersham County Police Department refuses to do the responsible thing and pay for Bou Bou’s medical care. Instead, they are hiding behind the claim they would be giving us a “gratuity” -- as though paying my baby’s medical bills after nearly killing him would be like paying a tip. Their blatant refusal to accept responsibility for their reckless actions is not only disgusting, but it is bankrupting my family.

Please sign this petition to tell the Habersham County Police Department to do what is right and pay the more than $1 million in medical bills forced upon us when they nearly killed my baby.