Jun. 13—An Albuquerque family alleges in a lawsuit that they remain homeless nearly two years after a 2022 SWAT standoff resulted in the destruction of their house and the death of a 15-year-old boy.

Officers were attempting to serve a felony warrant on a man inside the family’s home in the 8100 block of San Joaquin SE when a fire began, destroying the house and killing the boy inside.

The suit was filed in 2nd Judicial District Court on behalf of homeowner Sundra Coleman, her then-teenage daughter, Da-Janay Banks, and Banks’ child, who watched their home burn in the SWAT action.

“Since then, for nearly two years, Sundra, Da-Janay Banks, and baby A.H. have been unsheltered,” according to the suit. “During the day, Sundra goes to work. At night, the three live in Sundra’s car.”

Coleman’s attorney, Sam Walker, said Thursday that the family, including Banks’ now 3-year-old son, continue to live in Coleman’s car while they are rebuilding their home.

City of Albuquerque spokeswoman Ava Montoya said Thursday that the city is working to provide support for the Coleman family.

“Since this incident, the City has worked directly with the family to provide intensive case management, grief support, and months of rental assistance,” Montoya said in a written statement. “We will continue to provide resources and support to the family as they navigate this situation.”

Walker said the city provided rental assistance “for two or three months” but they remain homeless as they rebuild their home.

“They’re currently still homeless,” Walker said in a phone interview. “The hope is that their home will be finished being reconstructed, I believe, by the end of this month, but they’ve been homeless for a little over a year and a half.”

The suit was filed Wednesday against Bernalillo County and the city, which both provided SWAT teams involved in the action.

It seeks undisclosed monetary damages, alleging that officers falsely imprisoned them and illegally destroyed their home and property. The suit was filed in cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

Albuquerque Police Department officers went to Coleman’s home on July 6, 2022, to serve a felony warrant on Quaint Kelley, 29, who was arrested early the next morning outside the home.

Police said at the time that officers had followed Kelley and 15-year-old Brett Rosenau to the house, where they were seen outside working on a motorcycle. When officers attempted to arrest them, the two ran inside the house.

The suit alleges that Coleman didn’t know either Kelley or Rosenau and that the pair were at the house without her knowledge.

The lawsuit makes a series of allegations, including:

Coleman was asleep when police arrived at her house with guns drawn at about 6:30 p.m. Coleman, Banks and A.H. were directed by officers to remain across the street.

Banks attempted to record the incident on her cellphone but an officer grabbed it, threw it to the ground, and broke it. Officers later handcuffed Coleman and Banks.

SWAT teams for both the APD and Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the house about 8 p.m. and began to “tear apart” Coleman’s home, the suit alleges.

Officers fired gas munitions into the house to smoke out Kelley and Rosenau. Kelley exited a back door and collapsed in the backyard.

Officers threw a flash-bang grenade toward Kelley, which caused him to retreat back into the house.

At 1 a.m., officers threw a tri-chambered grenade through the window that landed on a mattress, which began to smolder.

Police said at the time that officers used an unknown number of Flameless Tri-Chamber tear gas canisters and rounds of power-based chemicals in the home more than an hour before smoke was seen.

At 1:30 a.m., officers used an armored vehicle “to lift the roof off the home, deploying additional chemicals into the attic,” the suit alleges.

At 2:45 a.m., officers used the armored vehicle to make a large hole in the wall and remove the smoldering mattress that “burst into flames, leading to an out-of-control fire that engulfed the Coleman family’s entire home,” the suit said.

Kelley exited the house and surrendered at 3:16 a.m., telling officers that Rosenau remained inside.

After the flames were extinguished, fire crews pulled Rosenau’s body from the home.

The state Office of the Medical Investigator later determined that Rosenau died of severe burns and smoke inhalation and ruled his death a homicide.

An autopsy report found soot in Rosenau’s lungs, high levels of carbon monoxide in his blood and burns over 95% of his body.

A spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that Kelley remains in custody at the Southern New Mexico Correction Facility.