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 more at Reason.
wpDiscuz
Incredible! The police are to knock and announce themselves before entering a home. The only exception to this rule is if they believe that someone’s life is in danger. I know, I am a retired officer.
Thanks for making that known!
If he opens the door and opens fire while being served the warrant, it’s on him. Illegal action by the police shouldn’t result in prosecution of the victim. I realize the police were also victims, one paying the ultimate price, but the police actions were wrong on so many levels there’s not time to go through it all.
until I search for more imfo, undecided.
Those cops deserve to be dead.
If you come in my house unannounced and without my express permission the odds are good that you will end up dead. You leaving alive will not be my intent.
As long as “no knock warrants” are allowed, this is going to be the result. For the cops, it is all fun and games, busting in on unsuspecting folks in their homes. But then, someone is not asleep in bed and defends their home and the cops and the disgusting prosecutors get all bent out of shape. I wish that I could be on the jury on this one. I would PAY them to be on the jury. The cops got what they deserved. They could have waited until 8AM and knocked on the door, announcing themselves properly. One down and three shot up all because the cops wanted to play “cops and robbers” at 5:30AM.
..home invaders give up their right to live
As a retired Penna State Trooper, I had several occasions to go on several drug raids. There were Search Warrants and knock and announcements of who we were and that we have a search warrant.
I made it home for supper all the time.
The person in charge of the raid did not follow the rule of law. Had he done so all would have survived.
That’s my opinion.