The State Attorney’s Office has confirmed NBA star Ray Allen and his wife met with prosecutors and the Coral Gables Police Department on Monday to discuss possible charges against a group of intruders who entered the basketball player’s South Florida home.
Police said seven teens entered the basketball player’s Coral Gables mansion through an unlocked door, Thursday, around 2 a.m. Investigators said the intruders were attending a house party next door and entered the residence while Allen’s wife Shannon and their four sons were sleeping.
Shannon was the one who dialed 911. “I just got up in bed and said, ‘What the [expletive] are you doing in my house?'” she is heard telling the dispatcher in the newly released 911 call.
Allen was not home at the time of the incident. Talking to the 911 dispatcher, Shannon said the intruders woke her up. “I was dead asleep, but I saw some flashlights and I heard voices, and they were walking through my bedroom,” she said. “We have like a sitting room in the bedroom, and they were like, as if they were on a tour pointing out stuff like, ‘Oh, wow, look at this picture.'”
Shannon then yelled, and the intruders bolted. Police quickly found out that seven teenagers between the ages of 18 and 19 years old were the ones who sneaked into the Allens’ residence. Police said the teens did not break in because the back door was open, something Shannon mentioned during her 911 call. “The back door to my pool area is slightly ajar,” she told the dispatcher.
Detectives said the teens never intended to take anything inside the residence. “They were there to see where Ray Allen lived,” said Coral Gables Police spokesperson Kelly Denham. “They had honestly thought that he had moved from the house.”
Prosecutors advised police to not charge the teens with burglary, saying there was no forced entry, no intent and nothing taken. State attorneys said the crime of trespassing an occupied structure is the one that fits this case.
Allen criticized the way police have handled the case, saying he believes the teens should face charges. In a statement released Saturday, Allen said, “The suggestion that anyone can unlawfully enter into someone’s locked home and then into an occupied bedroom in the middle of the night without consequences is unsettling, regardless of the stated or actual reason for such unlawful entry … everyone deserves to feel safe in their own homes.”
The next day, Coral Gables Police responded, saying, “Law enforcement officers are not permitted by Florida law to make an arrest for a trespass of this nature unless the crime occurs in their presence.”
As of Monday night, charges against the teens had not been filed, although police said this remains an open case.