Article from Reason by Scott Shackford.
Attempting to serve a search warrant by entering a house through a window got Killeen, Texas, Police Detective Charles Dinwiddie shot in the face and killed last May. It was yet another SWAT raid organized for a purpose other than the reason they were invented. The police had a search warrant looking for narcotics at the home of Marvin Louis Guy, 49. They decided to serve this warrant at 5:30 in the morning and without knocking on his door. He opened fire on them, killing Dinwiddie and injuring three others.
Though they found a glass pipe, a grinder, and a pistol, they did not find any drugs. Former Reason Editor Radley Balko took note of the deadly raid in May at The Washington Post. A police informant apparently told them there were bags of cocaine inside the house, which sounds a lot like another familiar drug raid in Virginia that got an officer killed.
The Virginia case ended with Ryan Frederick in prison for 10 years despite his insistence he thought he was defending himself against in home intruders. He may end up lucky compared to Guy. Prosecutors in Texas are going to seek the death penalty against him. KWTX offers a dreadfully written summary that says next to nothing about the circumstances of the raid but gives Dinwiddie’s whole life story. Guy faces three additional charges of attempted capital murder for shooting the other officers. The story mentions the no-knock raid but fails to explain why it happened or the failure to find any drugs.
A search for Guy in the jail inmate locator for Bell County, Texas, shows that he is being charged only for the shootings. There are no drug-related charges listed. He is being held on a bond totaling $4.5 million.
Read the entire article at Reason.
wpDiscuz
Everybody should be able to protect themselves against intruders!!! The intruders have stolen guns and knives, etc. to do deadly harm to the rest of us!!! Break into my house at your own risk. I worked hard for everything I have and YOU DO NOT GET TO STEAL IT and just walk away without deadly consequences!! My dog may get you before I do! Then I would just watch what he did while we waited on the police to arrive!!
I hate to say this, but that is exactly what happens when you try to enter house in the middle of the night and they did it without at least knocking on the door to wake people up. Law Enforcement had better start learning you don’t do “No Knock” raids on peoples houses. I would do the same. If you want to talk to me you had better come during daylight hours, which is what they are suppose to do anyway !!!
Isn’t the intruder the guilty one here?? Come on, someone breaks in and you defend yourself and the guilty one?!! What’s right is wrong and what’s wrong is right, the end is near.
Castle law says you can defend yourself!! SWAT Blew it!!
I don’t think that we should shoot people for stealing “stuff” but an intruder headed for you, family member, and guests, there should be no problem. Castle Doctrine, self-defense, and protection against bodily harm . Isn’t that one the big reasons to own a gun. don’t come in my window and not expect some pain. The police are just wrong, or we don’t have enough of the story
There are still idiot’s out there that think as these in Texas.
If the police want to conduct n knock raids, they’d better be able to prove (honestly) the warrant was correct. If not, it’s they who should face charges of murder, whether it be the home owner or police officers.
A case for jury nullification.
I wish that more of the sheep even knew what jury nullification was! I read an interesting article against it, claiming that it made a sham of the rule of law, but I see it as our last defense against an overreaching State. I stupidly admitted to believing in it during jury selection to send a guy to prison for life (probably; they never tell people the results of a guilty verdict) for having two long guns and a few pills. I, again stupidly, admitted that there was no way in hell that I was going along with it. The judge mentioned something about charging me with “contempt of court”, which, while true (I have contempt of everything these days), I suggested that I would check with my lawyer on that one, and he sure backpedalled in a hurry! I was not chosen for the jury.
I am on the side of the police 99.99% of the time. I have to say they are wrong this time. You sneak in my window at 5:30 am un announced, you will not like what greets you. It is horrid there is an officer dead. It is terrible that the other officers are injured. If they didn’t announce, how could he have any idea at all who they were? You have the right to protect yourself and your home.
I am surprised that any prosecutor in Kileen would prosecute the case AS GIVEN. There may be a lot more that we don’t know, but if the story is correct and complete, the cops got what they deserved. The so called “no knock” warrants should be illegal.
More liberal BS. “No knock” invasions are illegal entry, period thus a criminal act by a government. There is absolutely no reason this man couldn’t have been watched and picked up on the street and taken TO the house with the warrant…..which would’ve led to nothing too.
The shooting was TOTALLY self-defense!!!!!
Texas should no better than this. If I heard someone trying to break into my home they had better have their affairs in order.
This is so sad. I am distressed for everyone involved. I think if I were the homeowner and needed to defend my property, I would try to fire a warning shot first, after yelling that I had a gun. But the police must also give warning. Surprising people is never right!
They clearing got what was coming to them, and it seems obvious the warrant was a fraud and this was actually just another armed robbery attempt by “task forces” that ended in the tragedy of a man being charged for defending himself.
standard case of democratic justice being applied to the homeowner, and true justice to the intruders.