ABC affiliate Sacramento News 10 reports that a father was dragged from his Stockton, California home and handcuffed in front of his children by a SWAT team looking for his estranged wife to collect her unpaid student loans. Kenneth Wright and his children were fast asleep early Tuesday morning when a police SWAT team kicked in his front door, arrested Wright, dragging him from his front porch, handcuffed and leading him to a police car with his three children. Wright told reporters he was then detained for six hours while officers looked for his wife – who no longer lives at the house.
Mr Wright was later told by Stockton police that the order to send in the SWAT team came from The U.S. Department of Education who were looking for his estranged wife to collect defaulted loan payments.
Speaking to ABC News 10, a visibly shaken Mr Wright described what happened when he was woken by a banging on his front door.
He said: ‘I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers.
Dressed in his boxer shorts, Mr Wright says he rushed downstairs and was about to open the door when it was kicked open.
An officer then grabbed him by the neck before dragging him out onto the front lawn. His 3, 7, and 11-year-old children were also removed by officers and put in a waiting police car. ‘He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there,’ Mr Wright said. ‘They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatising my kids.’
The Department for Education refused to comment on the incident, saying they would not do so until the case was closed. They did however confirm that their Office of the Inspector General had issued the search warrant.