Family furious after police raid East Vancouver home

After weeks of gang activity in the Lower Mainland, police raided an East Vancouver home Friday afternoon — but the people who live in the house are furious.

The Rangi family told CBC News on Friday they would have let the police in if they had simply asked.

But instead, the family said police used "heavy-handed tactics" to gain entry into the home, breaking doors and anything else in their path.

Police stormed in with smoke grenades and a search warrant as they raided the home at 53rd Avenue and Knight Street, said Aman Ranji, speaking for the family.

Police wouldn't say Friday why they stormed the home, but Ranji has his own theory.

"Gang-related. You know, the term that they apply for everything they don't really know what's going on," he said.

Ranji told CBC News his 23-year-old brother was arrested and charged with drug trafficking and possession Thursday.

Last Tuesday, Ranji said, police turned up at the home looking for a DNA sample from his brother after a Surrey man was shot just blocks away during a botched home invasion.

Ranji said his brother complied because he has nothing to hide, and the police are now using the family to put on a show for the public.

"Tenth person dead, right? They don't know what to do anymore … so they're obviously looking in all the wrong places," he said.

Ranji's brother, who is in police custody, was shot at the home in 2007 — but the family insists he has no connection to gang activity.