FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — A Federal Way family whose home was nearly destroyed during a police raid now has reason to celebrate.
They've rebuilt and have moved back in.
This homecoming was more than a year in the making. They seem to have invited just about everyone, including the police officers whose SWAT operation nearly took down their house.
"There wasn't one piece of anything left in this place," said Glen Whitton. "You get everything pulled away from you, just like ripped away from you. And the only one that's going to put it back together is you."
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What an extraordinary difference a year makes.
"My sister-in-law and I did it," said Whitton, "and my buddy Gordon."
This is what they fashioned out of the ashes of a police standoff.
Federal Way police were in hot pursuit when a 36-year-old armed suspect burst into the home back in April 2018 while everyone was away. The SWAT team used every tool and vehicle to try to get him to come out.
"There was a car thief inside the house. He was armed," said police Cmdr. Casey Jones.
He led the operation that day. He says if they had walked away "and then the homeowners come, that would have been even worse than the bad way it turned out."
"Everything was destroyed with the exception of one thing," said Whitton. "That's a miracle."
The precious shrine to his nephew, who was killed on active duty in Afghanistan in 2011, remained intact. Still, there was an unwanted ghost here, too.
"They killed that young man in this house," he said.
So he redesigned the house.
Is it better? "I believe so," he said. "Yeah, well, we like it."
He says they used insurance money to rebuild, but they still had to do a lot of the work themselves.
They do plan to file a claim with the city, but they remain steadfast supporters of Federal Way police.
Cox Media Group
