Courtney Pike is standing in the doorway of her home, where she says two RCMP officers entered without warning around 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning. (Troy Turner / CBC)
A mother from Mount Moriah, NL opposes the RCMP’s explanation for why two police officers entered her home without permission through an unlocked door early Sunday morning.
“After a long period of knocking, doorbell ringing and verbal communication, police entered the residence through an unlocked door, verbally announcing their presence,” the RCMP said in a statement on Tuesday.
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday, Courtney Pike said that statement was not true.
“I feel like they’re trying to justify the reason they came to my house,” she said.
“They just say they knocked and rang the doorbell, and when no one answered, they had a good reason to come into the house.
She said the statement that employees rang her doorbell surprised her.
“We don’t have a bell. This house never had a bell. Never.”
Courtney Pike sent these photos to CBC News and said they showed the doors of her house. No door seems to have a bell. In a statement Tuesday, the RCMP said officers rang the doorbell before entering. (Submitted by Courtney Pike)
CBC News asked the RCMP to respond to Pike’s statement.
Earlier this week, Pike told CBC News that she was awakened around 5:30 a.m. Sunday by the sound of footsteps and voices at her home in western Newfoundland – footsteps and voices belonging to two RCMP employees. who entered her home through an unlocked door.
Pike said police woke up her 11-year-old daughter and questioned her while lighting her face with a flashlight.
Pike said she would hear if the cops knocked and made noise before entering, or if her dog started barking.
“They obviously had to sneak in very quietly,” she said.
An RCMP statement said officers entered the home because they were looking for a missing 17-year-old. The Royal Newfoundland Police, which has jurisdiction in nearby Corner Brook, said the young man was later found safe.
“Very unusual”: CCLA
Abby Deshman, program director of criminal justice at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said the incident was worrying.
“It seems very unusual for the police to enter a house at night and talk directly to a minor without asking where their parents are,” she said.
Abby Deshman, program director of criminal justice at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said Pike’s incident was worrying. (CBC)
Deshman said police were allowed to enter the home without permission, but only in certain emergencies or life-threatening situations or if there was concrete evidence.
“They can’t just walk into someone’s house because there’s a signal of a missing person. They need more than that.”
Deshman said in Newfoundland and Labrador, a judge could also allow police to enter a home, but there were no indications that this had happened.
“It really upset me”
Deshman said situations like the one Pike described were not always reported.
“However, we certainly hear from people in the communities – and in particular from marginalized and racial communities – that they feel that their rights are regularly violated by the police,” she said.
Pike said she had not been heard from police since the incident, but had filed a formal complaint with the RCMP. She said she was also in contact with a legal adviser about the incident and was considering filing a lawsuit.
Pike said she believed the RCMP statement, which she first saw in the media, was intended to make her look like a liar. She said she wanted a public apology.
“I had no reason to make up such a story, do you understand what I mean?” They went into my daughter’s bedroom and it really upset me.
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
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