By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday , April 22, 2000

MIAMI, April 22 – Armed federal agents stormed the Little Havana house of Lazaro Gonzalez before dawn today,
warning protesters they would shoot them before carrying away the blanket-wrapped figure of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to
reunite him with his father.

In 10 minutes, without serious physical injury to a crowd of dozens of demonstrators outside the home, the five-month standoff
over the boy's continued stay with his Miami relatives was over.

This morning, the boy and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, were reunited at Andrews Air Force Base, where they are
expected to stay under tight security for at least several days.

In Miami, details of the raid came from family and friends who were in the Little Havana House.

"They came in by force. They didn't even knock on the door," said Donato Dalyrymple, one of two fishermen who rescued the
shipwrecked child from the sea on Thanksgiving, who was inside the house. "They ripped him out of my arms. He was
screaming 'Help me, help me.' I rescued him from the ocean, but I couldn't rescue him from the United States government."

About 100 protesters who were keeping vigil all night outside the house began screaming and climbing over the police
barricade when a convoy of six white vans with tinted windows pulled up in front of the home at 5:10 a.m.

The federal agents, many of them wearing dark jackets with "INS officer" on the back, hit the crowd with pepper spray, forcing
them back. Other officers knocked down the front door of the home and stormed inside. They were out within seconds, a
woman surrounded by other officers, carried Elian to a van waiting with its motor running.

A federal agent retrieves Elian Gonzalez Saturday from his great-uncle's Miami home. Al Diaz

Several demonstrators who broke through the barricade and police line and attempted to form a human chain at the front door
were knocked to the ground at gunpoint, they said.

"They hit Ramon [Sanchez a protest leader], on the head with the butt of a gun and said, 'get out of the way, we will shoot,' "
said Felipe Rojas, a spokesman for Sanchez's Democracy Movement, who said he was face down on the ground next to
Sanchez.

The vans – one of them with the woman carrying Elian, were gone as quickly as they came.

Later in the day, the news that the boy had been removed sparked more protests throughout Miami's Little Havana. Although
those demonstrations were for the most part peaceful, there were sporadic instances of violence in which protesters blocked
intersections, set random street fires and threw rocks and cans while chanting slogans of defiance against the federal
government.

The unrest prompted police officers, most in riot gear, to use tear gas and pepper spray to restore order. Dozens of arrests
were reported throughout the day.

"What happened today was Miami's version of Waco," said Little Havana resident Aida Lopez, 31, a Cuban-American
housewife. "Instead of killing people this time, federal agents wearing masks and waving around guns terrorized a tender young
boy and maybe scarred him for life."

Karen DeYoung, reporting from Washington, and Serge F. Kovaleski, reporting from Miami, contributed to this report.

                                 © 2000 The Washington Post Company