BSO releases details on fatal drug raid

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Sheriff Al Lamberti shared news details regarding information on last week's a drug raid that left a woman dead.

For the second time, Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti held a news conference Thursday afternoon to address and correct rumors regarding the drug house raid that left 52-year-old Brenda Van Zwieten shot and killed by BSO SWAT members last Saturday night. "There's no doubt in my mind that they acted appropriately," said Lamberti.

Lamberti said that the SWAT team had a search warrant and identified themselves before taking action because a suspect was not cooperating. "As any search warrant, they knock and announce, 'Sheriff's Office search warrant,' that was confirmed by neighbors who heard it and by one of the other people that were in the house," said Lamberti.

Van Zwieten's family does not agree with Lamberti's explanation. "They broke into the sliding glass door and shot my mother five times for no reason," said Van Zwieten's son Robert Singleton.

The family is upset that they were not presented with the search warrant until hours after the midnight raid. "They left the warrant here, but it's all hand scribble, so it's not a true document," said Singleton.

Lamberti called the home a "drug supermarket." "What was found inside the house was all the street drugs, heroin, cocaine marijuana and all the prescription drugs that we were reading about with the pill mills and pain clinics," he said.

The family denies the rumors of the house being labeled a drug den.

A funeral will be held for Van Zwieten on Saturday. BSO said there were 109 similar SWAT situations and said all 109 resulted with no shots fired.

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