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NYPD Trashed My Backyard and Pool During Hunt for Officer's Killer: Lawsuit

By Katie Honan | August 24, 2016 10:45am
 Margaret Thevenin said NYPD officers broke down her garage door and sliced her pool to drain it. 
Margaret Thevenin said NYPD officers broke down her garage door and sliced her pool to drain it. 
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Margaret Thevenin

QUEENS VILLAGE — A homeowner says the NYPD wrecked her backyard and destroyed her pool as they hunted for the killer of Police Officer Brian Moore in 2015, according to a lawsuit. 

Suspect Demetrius Blackwell allegedly fired shots at an unmarked police car near 212th Street and 104th Road on May 2, 2015, killing Moore.

He then fled down an alley, setting off an hours-long manhunt that took officers through nearby backyards — including Margaret Thevenin's, she said.

"My house was their headquarters and they searched and it had nothing," she told DNAinfo of her 214th Street home.

Officers broke a glass table, ripped open her garage doors and tossed items from the garage into her pool, which they also drained by slicing holes in it, she said. 

Her backyard was turned "into a crime scene, but was not properly handled," she wrote in her lawsuit filed June 1, in which she's asking for $15,000 from the NYPD to cover the cost of the pool.

Thevenin, who is in her 50s and moved to the home in 1974, said she spoke to officers from the 105th Precinct and was told they would handle everything.

She delayed filing a claim with the city for the damage while waiting to hear from officers, but she never did, said Thevenin, a retired officer of the Department of Correction.

"I know there's procedures, you just can't search somebody's house and become ghosts," she added.

Thevenin said she feels for both the Moore family and officers from his precinct, especially as a retired city employee.

But the pool was her "sanctuary," and she planned to take it with her in a move to New Jersey this year. She sold her home this July, saying the whole ordeal left her shaken. 

"I just want a pool for my grandkids," she said.

The NYPD did not respond to an email seeking comment.