Maryland Man Who Teaches Black Citizens About Gun Safety Furious After Feds Raid His Home, Threaten to Shoot His Children Over False Accusations from Anonymous Tip

Mark Manley, a Black gun owner who teaches gun safety to Black citizens, is still wondering why federal agents raided his home early one morning last year, terrorizing his family with flash grenades, threatening to shoot his children and allowing their dogs to defecate throughout their home – only to come away with nothing illegal.

Manley, who runs a popular Second Amendment YouTube channel called Mark Choppa TV, believes Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives agents targeted him because not only is he a Black man who legally owns more than 70 guns, he also inspires other Black citizens to arm themselves legally.

But the ATF told the family they had received a tip from an anonymous source that he was a felon in possession of guns who was also engaging in illegal gun sales. The ATF also claims they conducted an investigation before presenting the evidence to a judge who signed the warrant.

But once they raided and ransacked his Baltimore home after handcuffing Manley, his wife, and their three children, who are 14, 15, and 17 years old, the federal agents discovered nothing illegal. 

“They were very disappointed,” Manley said in a video interview with West Virginia attorney John H. Bryan of The Civil Rights Lawyer YouTube channel, published Monday.

“We overheard them … when they huddled up. ‘Guys, we have nothing here.’ And everybody’s face just dropped in disbelief.”

ATF Silent

It’s been three months since the traumatizing raid that took place at 5 a.m. on November 21, but the ATF still has not publicly addressed the incident other than telling local media, “The warrant is under seal, and the investigation is ongoing.”

However, the federal agents did not confiscate any weapons and returned his phone, which they did confiscate. And no charges were ever filed against Manley or his family members.

But Manley is still angry and demanding answers.

“How can you go off on a tip to justify targeting a family, putting rifles on children, flash banging my wife and my son,” he said in his interview with Bryan. “How do you justify doing this by just a tip without any investigation? Any real investigation.”

“This could have ended up really bad,” as we have seen so many times in the past when cops raid the wrong home and kill innocent citizens who had done nothing illegal – as well as the most famous incident resulting in the death of Breonna Taylor.

But despite his family surviving the raid, his family remains traumatized, especially his children.

“They’re great children. They didn’t deserve none of this. They’re still shaken up,” he said in the YouTube interview.

“This is their safe space, this is their home. Their peace has just been taken away from them in a blink of an eye.”

Manley explained that the only reason he did not start shooting at the intruders with his own guns was because he looked out his window and saw they were cops.

Watch video footage of the raid below from Manley’s security camera.

The Raid

Manley and his wife are both schoolteachers who wake up early and leave their home by 5:45 a.m., so they were awake when the federal agents pulled up to their home.

His wife was downstairs drinking coffee while he was upstairs getting ready when she called out to him, telling him somebody was outside their home.

“I immediately grabbed my firearm,” he said in the YouTube interview. “I’m thinking there’s someone about to break into the house.”

“So I look outside my window, and I see tactical units surrounding my home. So, of course, I put my firearm down and made contact with my children and told them to get up, we got the  police at the door, everybody stay calm.”

“I went to my window and said, ‘Hey, we are coming out.’’’

The federal agents responded by breaking open his front door with a crowbar and tossing in a flash grenade, which exploded in his living room, disorienting his wife.

They also broke the glass door behind the home that led to his 15-year-old son’s bedroom in the basement, tossing in another flash grenade that exploded inside the home.

“My son loves the basement,” Manley said in an interview with The Gun Writer. “He has his own place, but they busted down his door, threw a grenade, and 14 agents ran into his room, guns drawn and threatening to shoot him.” 

“He was woken by surprise. They busted down the glass door to his room and had guns drawn.”

Once the family had stepped out of the house with their hands in the air, the agents pointed their guns at the children while barking contradictory orders.

“They said ‘walk towards me,’ and then when I’m coming down the steps, they told me to turn around, but they were still saying walk towards me,” Manley said. “I remember feeling like they’re trying to kill me.”

He then noticed six red laser dots on his daughter, indicating six rifles pointed at her.

“You’re pointing guns at my daughter,” he told them as he stepped out, according to the security video footage from his roof. “You have guns at my f-cking daughter.”

That was when the agents handcuffed all three children, his wife and himself, forcing them to stand outside in their pajamas in 20-degree weather. 

Manley remained cuffed with his hands behind his back for three hours while the agents ransacked his home. The cuffs were removed from his wife and children after 20 minutes.

They opened his safe and examined each and every firearm, only to discover every one of his guns was legally owned.

“They started pulling out rifles and shotguns, but everything was registered and Maryland-compliant,” Manley said in an interview with the Second Amendment Foundation. “‘We got nothing here,’ one of them said.”

They also allowed their dogs to defecate inside the home, including on his daughter’s bed, but did not bother cleaning it up.

The flashbangs also destroyed the wooden floors in the home they had just moved into three months earlier. And they turned off security cameras inside his home as they were ransacking it.

“For us to be the only Black family on the block – the ATF just assumed they would find something in our home,” his wife said in the interview with the Second Amendment Foundation.

Manley’s Fight for Justice

Manley has launched a Go Fund Me page and has been speaking to attorneys to fight back against the government and has raised more than $51,000 as of this writing. His goal is to raise $75,000.

“Would this happen if I was white?” Manley said in the interview with the Second Amendment Foundation. 

“Probably, but I feel like more of a target because I am Black, but I don’t want to. I was targeted because I am such a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.”

“I am heavily armed. I’m a Black man, but me being a Black man doesn’t help my case. They put me in the worst position as the man of the house. It was all just horrific, man.”

In a video on his YouTube channel, Manley said he always knew it would come down to this as a Black man who advocates for gun rights, especially for Black citizens.

“I already knew as soon as I legally picked up an AK-47 and started changing the hearts and minds of the people, I knew the feds would find any reason to come knocking on my door.”

“And they didn’t find nothing because there ain’t nothing.”