UNC law students ask judge to release Raleigh police body cam footage during 2021 no-knock warrant

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law students argued Tuesday for the release of body camera footage taken by Raleigh police officers while they executed a no-knock warrant in 2021.

On April 7, 2021, Raleigh police executed a warrant at the home of Amir Abboud. Officers announced their entry and almost immediately rammed down the door of the home.

“This body camera footage will complete the story as to what happened that day,” UNC student Jack Salt said.

Surveillance video from the home shows police with rifles and tactical gear. Officers are heard yelling “hands up!” and shouting “put the hands on the back of your head” in the surveillance video.

“[The Raleigh Police Department] should not be able to keep this footage to cover up a mistake,” Salt said. “The public has not seen as to what happened after forceful entry.”

Abboud’s family believes they were profiled. No one in the family was ever charged with a crime. WRAL News attempted to reach Abboud’s family on Tuesday but did not hear back.

Sherita Walton, an attorney with the Raleigh Police Department, objected to the public release of the footage.

“Is the release necessary to the public’s interest?” Walton said. “There is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing of officers involved.

“Is there a compelling public interest?”

The judge has yet to decide on the release of the footage publicly. That’s expected later this week.

“We think this was racial discrimination because Mr. Abboud and this person of interest were the only people of Arab decent in the neighborhood,” said UNC student Morgan Schriner.

Schriner said Raleigh police realized they had the wrong person of interest even though the address was correct on the warrant.

“What we think happened here, when they got the warrant, they claimed they saw the [person of interest] they wanted was going in and out several times,” Schriner said.

Schriner said Abboud was enjoying his morning at home and making coffee after working overnight.

“There was an execution of a search warrant that was valid on its face,” Walton said.

This is not the first time alleged no-knock warrants by Raleigh police have been in the spotlight. The families of Yolanda Irving and Kenya Walton claim Raleigh police wrongfully invaded their private duplex homes in May 2020.