Family claims deputies raided their home by mistake in Pender County

PENDER COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - It was a living nightmare for Avery Marshall and his fiancé, Alisa Carr.

“Every time I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes,” Carr said.

“The only thing I heard was a crash. So, I stopped for a second, like what’s going on?” Marshall said.

Marshall, who’s recovering from a spine surgery, says he woke up to Pender County Sheriff’s deputies banging on their door.

It happened at around 1 a.m. in Willard on Wednesday, April 10. The whole incident, was captured on a Ring doorbell camera.

“If I didn’t have the video, I feel like no one would believe me,” Marshall said.

Marshall says deputies threw stun grenades into the home as they shattered the front door.

“They made me crawl in that glass and I had to spread my arms out in the glass. My whole body had to be spread out in glass,” Marshall recalled. As he recovers from surgery, he says his body is still sore from the incident.

Carr says deputies swarmed their home, even pulling guns on their two children, ages 16 and 9.

“All I could do was yell, ‘My kids my kids,’” Carr said.

“I’m yelling on the floor telling them ‘That’s my son! that’s my son!’” Marshall continued.

The reason for the raid is a search warrant for a wanted man from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies were looking for a man named Joseph Clark Jr.

The big problem? Marshall and Carr’s address was listed and they don’t know who Clark is.

In response to the incident, Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler sent WECT a statement:

On Tuesday evening April 9, 2024, just before 9 p.m., my office received a request for assistance from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office concerning an investigation and high-risk search warrant service.

Investigators from Lee County Sheriff’s Office had applied for and received a search warrant. This order was issued by a Superior Court Judge.

Shortly after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, April 10th, members from my office did serve the search warrant. The person named in the search warrant was not located at this residence. There were no reported injuries to any member of the residents at this location. Approximately 25 minutes after arriving on scene, EMS was summoned for a member of the household and that person was transported by EMS to Pender Memorial Hospital.

You will need to contact the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for further information regarding this investigation.

WECT has reached out to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office repeatedly and has not heard back.

As for the family, their home continues to serve as a reminder of what happened.

Blood is still smeared on the wall, holes in the home, and a glass door in the backyard.

Marshall says while nothing can remedy the situation, he wants only one thing.

“The only thing I asked for from the beginning was for them to fix my house to the way it was before it was busted in,” he said

As of Friday, the family says no one from the Lee or Pender County Sheriff’s Office has reached out to compensate them for the damage.

Marshall says he has not received any answers from deputies at all since the incident.

Marshall and Carr both say this has changed their perception of the police forever.

“The system has failed us, and I used to think highly of the police, you know, and now I don’t. Not at all,” Carr says.