Authorities Raid Home, Shoot Woman, Looking For Wanted Man Already In Jail

An Alabama woman was shot at her home last week by authorities who were looking for a man already booked into jail the previous day. Officials branded the situation as a miscommunication.

Deputies from Mobile Country Sheriff’s office and federal officers descended on a house in Wilmer, Alabama looking for Nicholas McLeod who used to live there. Ann Rylee, 19, was at the house when the raid took place and was shot.

Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran told WALA-TV that Rylee had pointed a shotgun at the authorities, forcing them to open fire on her.

“This lady had armed herself with a shotgun and the entry team was giving her orders to drop the gun, put the gun down, drop the gun several times over a period of a few seconds it seems like," Cohcran told the news outlet. “She didn't and she pointed the gun at one of them — then two or three agents fired upon her, striking her three or four times.”

Jail records show that Nicholas Mcleod, 41, was arrested a day prior and booked at the Mobile Jail on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and evidence tampering.

The sheriff termed the situation as a miscommunication.

"We've narrowed it down to one of two things: The investigators did not make one final check this morning to send teams out to make the arrests or warrants section did not communicate to the computer system — that the warrants were no longer active. We're running that down," Cochran told WALA-TV.

According to Cochran, the details could have been determined on the scene and everything would have ended much better if Rylee had not pointed the shotgun at the officers.

Rylee’s fiancee Christopher Mcleod, who was detained outside the house during the raid, had a different story to tell. According to him, Rylee was asleep on a recliner in the living room when the raid took place.

Christopher was emptying the trash outside the house with his friend when multiple officers armed with rifles and wearing body armor detained them. He told officers that they kept a shotgun in the house for protection.

Two federal officers approached the house and started yelling “gun” before firing the shots.

Rylee was hospitalized and underwent surgery. She is expected to survive.

“I just hope she's OK. That's my No. 1,” Christopher told WALA-TV. “It's just so unfortunate because none of this needed to happen, it had nothing to do with us. We're just victims of an unfortunate situation.”