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MIAMI - Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez claimed in a federal lawsuit Tuesday that six federal agents used excessive force in an armed raid on their home to seize the boy and return him to Cuba.
Elian's cousin and a great-uncle and his wife claim that the armed officers broke down the front door unannounced, sprayed irritating gas, held people at gunpoint and shouted obscenities at sleepy, unarmed relatives, supporters and news media in the predawn raid in April 2000.
"There was no sort of resistance," said Ed Farres, an attorney for Judicial Watch, a legal watchdog group representing the family. The agents "were told, "Put your guns down. You can take him.' None of that was heeded."
Elian returned home with his father two months later. He celebrated his 10th birthday Friday with Cuban President Fidel Castro, who visited his school.
In November 1999 the boy survived a boat capsizing that claimed the lives of his mother and others fleeing Cuba. He was turned over to his Miami relatives while his custody situation was resolved.
Then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the raid after the family refused to release the boy to be returned to his father.
Elian was being hidden in a closet when an agent burst in and took the boy at gunpoint.
"This case is about what really happened in this house on that dawn of infamy," Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez said, speaking Tuesday outside the raided house-turned-museum.
Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman in Washington, said he knew no details about the lawsuit and had no comment.
A total of 151 armed agents raided the house where about 50 people held a vigil, the lawsuit said. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the six agents who entered the house.
The suit is the sixth filed over the raid, including three by people at the house and three by an immigration agent who claimed his superiors had an anti-Cuban bias. No suit has gone to trial.
A federal appeals court in June refused to allow relatives to keep their lawsuit alive against Reno.