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Midland, TX — In the state’s relentless and often criminal and deadly pursuit to prevent citizens from participating in the voluntary exchange and consumption of prohibited substances, society’s most vulnerable often become fodder. Thanks to police raiding her home to arrest her brother for one of these substances, a little girl is now recovering in the hospital after being shot in the back by cops, according to her father.

During a raid on her home Wednesday night, the girl’s father says cops came in shooting and both of his children were hit. Luis Gomez says Wednesday night cops kicked in their door, without announcing themselves, and began shooting. Naturally, police are refusing to release any details regarding the shooting, but the father says there is no mistaking what happened.

According to KSL:

Erin Bailey, a spokeswoman for city of Midland, confirmed that an officer-involved shooting took place but referred all other questions about it to the Texas Rangers, a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety that has taken over the investigation. A sergeant with the Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately return calls seeking comment on Thursday about the shooting.

Gomez says his 16-year-old son was home watching his little sister when something crashed through their window around 9:30 p.m. Imagine the fear a 16-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl feel when armed storm troopers come crashing through their windows at night.

“And he heard the front door kicked in, so he thought someone was robbing us or something,” Gomez said. “So, he runs over there. I guess he had an object in his hand, I don’t know what he had or what. And when he ran that way, they just opened fire on him.”

When Gomez returned from work, his home was a war zone and his two children were shot.

According to KOSA, Gomez said his son was struck in the arm when he took cover. He said the teenager kept yelling that his sister was in the other room and when the gunfire stopped, she walked out with blood on her.

“They told my son this is your fault,” Gomez said. “It’s your fault she got shot. This is all your fault.”

Sadly, Gomez says this is not the first time police have raided his home in search of substances deemed illegal by the state. They have come after his older child before. Thanks to the war on drugs, Gomez is now left with one child in juvenile detention and another suffering in the hospital with a fresh bullet wound in her back.

“She’s in a lot of pain,” Gomez said. “She just won’t stop crying, she’s shaking. She just keeps screaming every five minutes. Doctors said it’s going to be some kind of trauma. Like she’s going to be traumatized over it.”

Sadly, this is par for the course when it comes to the war on drugs. As TFTP reported, while staying with relatives in Habersham County, Georgia, the Phonesavanh family had been asleep when a SWAT team executed a no-knock search warrant just before 3:00 a.m. on May 28, 2014. Before the police entered the room with guns drawn, Habersham Deputy Charles Long tossed a flashbang grenade into 19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh’s crib. The explosion blew a hole in the baby’s face and chest, covering him in third-degree burns.

The search warrant had been intended for Bounkham’s cousin who was suspected of making a $50 drug sale. The suspected cousin no longer lived in the house and was later arrested without incident. After being transported to an intensive burn unit, Bounkham was placed into a medically induced coma. Habersham County officials refused to cover the baby’s medical expenses.

Just past midnight on May 16, 2010, a Detroit SWAT team tossed a flashbang grenade into the living room where 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones had been sleeping on the couch. As the flashbang incinerated her blanket, Aiyana was immediately shot in the head by Officer Joseph Weekley. Weekly claimed that Aiyana’s grandmother had reached for his weapon, but ballistics and another officer’s testimony refute his accusations. Police later realized they had forcibly entered the wrong apartment. The suspect, Chauncey Owens, lived upstairs.

On January 4, 2008, Tarika Wilson had been holding her 14-month-old son when an Ohio SWAT team broke down her front door. Sgt. Joe Chavalia entered the residence shooting both Tarika and her infant son. Unarmed and not suspected of any crimes, Tarika died of her wounds while her child survived. Chavalia was charged with two misdemeanors, negligent homicide, and negligent assault. An all-white jury convened for three hours before returning with a not guilty verdict.

During a drug raid in Modesto, California, 11-year-old Alberto Sepulveda was lying facedown on his bedroom floor when Officer David Hawn entered the room and fired his shotgun. Claiming his shotgun accidentally discharged, Hawn refused to accept responsibility for taking Alberto’s life on September 13, 2000. Clearing Hawn of any criminal charges, former Attorney General Bill Lockyer admitted, “Unfortunately, too many times the deployment of a SWAT team has resulted in the unintentional death or injury to a peace officer or member of the public.”

The concept of the SWAT team formed as a reaction to the 1965 Watts riots. Since that time, the federal government has been pouring increasing amounts of money and military-grade weapons into the hands of law enforcement agencies. Citing the wars on drugs and terror to rationalize their actions, federal assistance from the DOD’s 1033 Program and the DOJ’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant has been escalating the militarization of American police forces.

By sidestepping the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, the U.S. government has blurred the divisions between the military and the police all to enforce a failed system of prohibition, and they seemingly couldn’t care less about the children left in their bloody wake.

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