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Government Raid Victims of the "War on Drugs"
http://apll.freeyellow.com/raids.html ^ | ---

Posted on 09/03/2002 7:41:56 AM PDT by JediGirl

Those listed below includes innocent victims of police raids. Remember: Some, though not all, of the below victims never engaged in a single drug activity, yet they were still murdered due to the "War on Drugs."

Even those who did and do engage in drug use do not warrant death. It was (and is) a personal choice and it was (and is) individual's own bodies.

John Adams -- Tennessee

A 62-year-old black man was shot and killed by five white police officers in Lebanon, Tennessee after they burst through the front door of his home at 10:00 PM on a Wednesday night. It turned out their search warrant for drugs was erroneous: It should have been written for the house next door.

David Aguilar -- Arizona

David Aguilar, 44, retired from the military after 20 years and decided to live on his pension so he could be a "stay-at-home dad" to his five youngest children, aged 3 to 15, according to Beth Cascaddan, his neighbor in Three Points, Arizona. "He was extremely devoted to his children," Ms. Cascaddan told reporter Melissa Martinez of the daily Tucson Citizen. Aguilar also coached youth football and baseball.

But on the early afternoon of Friday, January 10, David Aguilar sensed something wrong. There was a man sitting in a car parked alongside the road bordering Aguilar’s property. Aguilar confronted the man and an argument emerged. Seeing that the stranger was not going to move along, Aguilar went back to the house and returned with a gun. The children told neighbor Bonnie Moreno their father was simply trying to scare the man away. There is no indication David Aguilar ever fired. When the man in the car saw Aguilar returning, he drew his own gun and, at 2:45 that Friday afternoon, fired multiple times through his own windshield.

David Aguilar died that evening in a Tucson hospital, of a single gunshot wound to the chest. The shooter was an undercover agent of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. His name has never been released and he has not spent a single day in prison.

Delbert Bonar -- Ohio

Police in Belpre, Ohio, got a tip that Albert Bonar was growing and selling marijuana. So, on October 15, 1998, they raided the house where Albert lived, and shot to death his father, Delbert Bonar, 57, a janitor. Police did find a small amount of marijuana -- enough for personal consumption. Albert later admitted the marijuana was his.

The police did not find any of the growing plants or large quantities of marijuana the informant allegedly told them about. The informant who gave the false information has not been named. Police told the press that they were just protecting themselves when they riddled the body of Delbert Bonar with bullets. But Carolyn Bonar, daughter-in-law of Delbert, says that all Delbert had in his hands was a water bottle.

The elder Bonar was reaching for his telephone, an offense apparently punishable by death when there is a suspicion that marijuana may be on the premises. Delbert Bonar died instantly from 8 bullet wounds from police gunfire. In his 57 years, he had no criminal record and had never even been arrested.

Vernia Brown -- New York

On Thursday, March 17, 1988, at 10:45 p.m., in the Bronx, Vernia Brown was killed by stray bullets fired in a dispute over illegal drugs. The 19-year-old mother of one was not involved in the dispute, yet her death was a direct consequence of the "War on Drugs".

Scott Bryant -- Wisconsin

Age 29 at time of death when he was shot by police officer Robert Neuman of the Dodge County Sherrif's Department in Beaver Dam, WI, on April 28, 1995. Bryant was unarmed and did not resist in any way when police with a no-knock warrant charged through the door of his home.

His seven-year-old son watched his father die while an ambulance took 35 minutes to arrive. Police later reported finding less than three grams of marijuana (enough for two or three cigarettes). Police claim it may have been an accidental shooting. An accident that has changed the lives of the Bryant family and many others in his state.

Troy James Davis -- Texas

Troy James Davis, 25, died December 15, 1999 at Columbia North Hills Hospital, about 15 minutes after being shot by North Richland Hills police officer Allen Hill. Police had gone to the Davis home to serve a search-and-arrest warrant in connection with an informant's tip that there were drugs in the house. After the shooting, Davis' mother, Barbara Davis, 49, was arrested in connection with the drug possession investigation.

Police broke down the front door of the Davis home when they entered. Police have indicated that no drugs have been found on the home, using the “crime scene” as an excuse for their lack of evidence. One wonders why police broke into the home rather than knocking on the door. What kind of evidence did they have and how did they get it? Who was the informant? Barbara Davis has a defense fund set up on her behalf The Barbara Davis Defense Fund.

Anna (Annie) Rae Dixon -- Texas

Age 84 and bedridden when she was killed by police in a 1992 drug raid in East Texas. No drugs were found in the home. A 28 year-old officer said his automatic pistol accidentally discharged when he kicked open Mrs. Dixon's bedroom door.

Earlier the evening of her death, an informant was given $30 to go into the Dixon home where he claimed he could buy drugs. He emerged with crack cocaine, but police did not search him either before or after the purchase. The informant reported that a few young women and children lived there, but he didn't report about the sick woman.

Police got a search warrant and returned to the house just after 2:00 AM. They sprinted up the ramshackle porch and smashed the front door with a battering ram. As they swept in, the officer kicked in the door to Ms. Dixon's bedroom and fell, slamming his elbow against the door and firing the gun. The officer said he collapsed and "started throwing my guts up crying because I knew I had shot somebody that didn't have no reason to be shot."

Steven Dons -- Oregon

Dons, 37, "committed suicide" while in a medical facilty run by the State. He had been the victim of an unlawful raid by the Portland Oregon Police Department over the heinous crime of "maybe" having had marijuana in the house he was staying in.

Dons was not a mild mannered customer. When the police kicked down his door without a warrant, he responed in a way appropriate for the situation. Using a rifle, he killed police officer Colleen Waibel and seriously wounded two other officers. The tragic results of a raid on a citizen who understood the Second and Fourth Amendments.

Patrick Dorismond -- New York

Juan Mendoza Fernandez -- Texas

A 60-year-old man shot and killed by Irving, Texas police serving narcotics search and arrest warrants at his West Dallas home thought officers were burglars trying to force their way inside, members of his family said. He and his wife had been married about 36 years and had four children and 13 grandchildren.

Curt Ferryman -- Florida

The fatal shooting of unarmed drug dealer Curt Ferryman in a botched sting in Jacksonville was "negligent and unnecessary," but not flagrant enough to warrant criminal prosecution against the federal agent who shot the man, according to State Attorney Harry Shorstein. The August 14, 2000 raid of Ferryman was "poorly planned and poorly executed." Shorstein later admitted that "under Florida law, the killing of Curt Ferryman was excusable homicide."

30-year-old Christopher Sean Martin of the Drug Enforcement Administration accidentally shot Ferryman when the agent knocked on the window of a parked vehicle occupied by the 24-year-old Ferryman.

Ramon Gallardo -- California

Gallardo was shot 15 times by a SWAT team with a warrant for his son in Dinuba, California in 1997.

Ralph Garrison -- New Mexico

Ralph Garrison, 69, a video store owner, lived in downtown Albuquerque. In a lifetime of owning small businesses, he put away enough to buy a second house next door, which he rented out. Before sunrise on Monday, December 16, 1996, Ralph Garrison awakened to hear the sounds of someone breaking into his rental property next door. His tenants apparently were not at home.

Garrison went outside to ask who these people were and what they were doing. The men -- dressed in black with no visible identifying marks, wearing black "balaclava" hoods which may have been pulled down to conceal their faces, shined lights in his eyes, brandished rifles and yelled at him to get back in his house. Ralph Garrison called 911. But 911 had already arrived.

Police reported that police officer H. Neal Terry and county deputies James Monteith and Erik Little -- displaying no badges, dressed in unmarked dark SWAT gear, and possibly wearing their black hoods pulled down over their faces -- saw Garrison come to his back door with a gun in one hand and a cellular phone in the other. All three officers opened fire with their AR-15 assault rifles, discharging at least 12 rounds. Police Chief Joe Polisar and County Sheriff Joe Bowdich said they believe the officers shot Garrison in accordance with departmental policies.

John P. Graham -- Wisconsin

When Graham, 49, refused to get out of his truck and resisted during an on-site interrogation, he was handcuffed by Sauk-Prairie police officer John Mueller and ordered to remain face down on his driveway. Graham was then shot twice in the back of the head by Mueller with his police revolver. The incident occurred September 16, 1986.

Willie Heard -- Kansas

In the town of Osawatomie, Kansas (pop. 4,500), Willie Heard, a forty-six year-old man, was shot to death in his bedroom at 1:30 AM by police who had stormed into the home to execute a search warrant. Heard's sixteen year-old daughter claims that the officers failed to identify themselves other than to shout "freeze!" and "get down!" The police, after kicking in the front door, entered the bedroom and came upon Mr. Heard clutching his twenty-two caliber rifle. They shot. He died.

The warrant said that the police were to search for crack cocaine and related items. None was found. A probe is underway by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to determine whether police acted improperly in killing Mr. Heard.

John Hirko -- Pennsylvania

A masked ninja style 'drug task force' squad of police officers gunned down an unarmed drug suspect in his own home in Bethlehem in April, 1996, in what the coroner subsequently ruled a homicide. The cops also set fire to the house, incinerating the body, but claimed to have miraculously retrieved the drugs for which they had a search warrant.

Raul Huartado -- Indiana

Gary police officer James Ervin, 30, is accused of using his position as a nine-year veteran on the Gary Police Department to take part in racketeering, homicide, and illicit drug distribution from at least the summer of 1998 through August, 1999. Ervin killed or counseled the killing of Raul Huartado and Gil Nevarez on November 19, 1998, as part of a plot to extort more than 5 kilograms of cocaine from the victims.

Joey Kessinger -- Tennessee

A tangle between the police and the suspect occurred regarding the illegal sale of drugs in July, 2001. According to the medical examiner's report, Kessinger had two gunshot wounds to the left wrist and four gunshot wounds on the back of his body.

Bruce Lavoie -- New Hampshire

On August 3, 1989, Lavoie lay peacefully sleeping in the room he shared with his young son in the village of Hudson.

At 5:00 AM he was awakened by a loud noise as his whole home was shaken violently. A battering ram had smashed his front door and a dark band of armed men rushed into his small apartment. Rising to defend his son, Lavoie was shot to death as his little boy watched helplessly. Officers found one cannabis cigarette butt.

Ronald Loop -- New Jersey

Age 25 at time of death on March 11, 1988 in Brick Township. Suspected of marijuana dealing, Loop had just picked up a Federal Express package that contained 10 pounds of marijuana. He was unarmed and was shot as he fled from police outside his home.

Ismael Mena -- Colorado

Kirk Massie -- Oklahoma

Officers shot and killed an armed Sparks man hiding in his bathroom one Tuesday morning in mid-2001 as a search warrant was served at his home.

Kirk Massie, 49, was armed with a double-barrel shotgun when agents entered his Lincoln County home at 7:50 AM to serve a warrant for methamphetamine. Massie operated a meth. lab in a bunker on the property. His life was taken because of it.

Pedro Oregon Navarro -- Texas

Acting on an informant's tip, members of the Houston Police Department gang taskforce stormed into an apartment last month they believed illegal drugs were being sold. When the man who lived there locked himself inside his bedroom, the officers kicked in the door and began firing.

Thirty-three bullets later, 23 year-old Pedro Oregon Navarro was dead, shot a dozen times, including nine times in the back. But the investigation in the wake of the fatal shooting shows the officers had no warrant, the informant was not registered with the police as required by Department rules covering drug informants, police found no drugs in Mr. Oregon's apartment and a gun officers said Mr. Oregon had pointed at them never was fired.

"They went knowingly and consciously in search of their own heroics and forgot to abide by the rules," says Tony Cantu, a hispanic activist in Houston. "The bottom line is they shot an innocent young man in the back after in illegal entry," Mr. Dovalina said.

Gil Nevarez -- Indiana

Gary, Indiana police officer James Ervin, 30, is accused of using his position as a nine-year veteran on the Gary Police Department to take part in racketeering, homicide and illicit drug distribution from at least the summer of 1998 through August 1999. Ervin killed or counseled the killing of Raul Huartado and Gil Nevarez on November 19, 1998, as part of a plot to extort more than 5 kilograms of cocaine from the victims.

Mario Paz -- California

A 69 year old grandfather died a brutal death at the hands of police looking for marijuana on August 9, 1999. No drugs were found.

It was an hour before midnight when an El Monte police SWAT team, serving a search warrant as part of a broad-ranging narcotics investigation, undertook what it called the "high-risk entry" of a Compton home -- shooting the locks off the front and back doors. Their warrant, which named no one specifically in the Paz home, says police expected to find marijuana and cash belonging to a suspected member of a drug ring who had allegedly used the house as a mail drop.

They found no drugs, but in the course of the search they shot a retired grandfather twice in the back -- killing him. The widow was hustled out of the house in nothing but panties, a towel, and plastic handcuffs. She and six others were later taken away and intensively interrogated, but no one was charged. Ten thousand dollars in cash was seized as evidence, along with a .22- caliber rifle and three pistols, according to investigators for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The family said that the money was patriarch Mario Paz's life savings and that he kept firearms for protection in the high-crime neighborhood.

Robert Lee Peters -- Florida

Age 33 at time of death in St. Petersburg in July, 1994. Deputies did not identify themselves before breaking into the house as the family prepared to watch a movie. Friends and relatives say Peters may have mistaken them for burglars. Deputies did not know there were two children and his ailing stepfather (who had a heart attack after the shoot-out) in the house at the time of the no-knock raid.

The police tried to smash through the front door with a battering ram. Peters fired a .357 magnum through the door and was struck three times by the SWAT team. Two pounds of marijuana were confiscated from his home. Records indicate that a confidential informant bought 7.3 grams of marijuana. An undercover detective purchased 27 grams. His brother George was charged and did not resist arrest. George said his brother wouldn't have resisted either, had he known they were deputies. "All they had to do," he said, "was knock on the door."

Manuel Medina Ramirez -- California

When Ramirez, a 63-year-old retired golf-course groundskeeper, was routed from his slumber at 2:00 AM by armed men breaking down the door of his modest Stockton home, he instinctively reached for his bedside pistol. Shooting into the darkness, he brought one of the men down; the others returned fire, and Ramirez was shot dead in front of his son and daughter, who had also been awakened.

The armed men turned out to be a Stockton police anti-drug team who had obtained a warrant for the house after a friend of the Ramirez family was found with marijuana in his car and gave the police the Ramirez address as his own.

The officers claim they had identified themselves, but the Ramirez daughter says her father spoke poor English and couldn't understand them. No drugs were found in the house. "These were very quiet people," said a neighbor. "I never saw anything going on that could indicate drugs at all."

Donald Scott -- California

Michael Swimmer -- Georgia

While Swimmer stood naked by his own bed, drug warrior police burst through his front door and riddled his bedroom with machine gun fire. Swimmer was shot ten times and died a few hours later.

The authorities all agreed killing Swimmer, who had no police record, was just fine because an unidentified informant said that he had 368 tablets of ecstasy.
Rev. Accelyne Williams -- Massachusetts

Retired Methodist minister Accelyne Williams was chased around his Boston apartment by members of a police team looking for drugs and guns when he collapsed and died of a heart attack at the age of 75.

Acting on a tip by an informant, the police conducted a no-knock raid. No guns or drugs were found, as it was soon discovered they raided the wrong apartment.

George Timothy Williams -- Idaho

Officer Phillip Anderson, 23, and his partner, Cpl. James Moulson, 30, were killed in the shootout at the Eden home of George Timothy Williams the night of January 3, 2001 while attempting to serve a search warrant for illegal drugs at Williams' home. Williams, 47, a suspected drug dealer, was also killed during the fight. About four grams of marijuana were found in Williams' home after the raid.

Rusty Windell -- Texas


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: braindamage
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To: Illbay
Even when I was a drug warrior, I could come up with better arguments against the drug war then calling everyone dopeheads.
21 posted on 09/03/2002 8:12:31 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: JediGirl
than*
22 posted on 09/03/2002 8:12:57 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: Pern
Consider the source my friend..it's just Illbay, one of our local village idiots. He has no real opinions of his own, only says things to get a rise out of people. The real problem are the "law and order at all costs" FReepers who actually feel that way. To them, anyone who does drugs deserves to die, along with their families and friends..and hey, if other innocent people get accidentally killed along the way, it's the fault of the evil drug users, not the perfect government gestapo who can do no wrong.
23 posted on 09/03/2002 8:13:02 AM PDT by goodieD
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To: Illbay
2. The tiny number of people here are far less than died in boating accidents last year. But you don't hear anyone calling for the banning of pleasure boating, because the upside FAR outweighs the downside.

Equating boating accidents with homicide at the hands of government agents?

Sheesh!

Have you ever met drug agents? Do you know anything about them at all?

You simply don't approve of (some) drug use and advocate government deadly force to prevent others from doing that which you don't approve.

24 posted on 09/03/2002 8:13:50 AM PDT by Eagle Eye
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To: Illbay
There, for all to see, fellow FReepers, is a typical attitude found among the dope-lovin' crowd. They see LE as a threat, because their lives revolve around a habit so dire, so difficult for them to overcome, that they have to warp reality in order to accomodate it.

Funny, we must be special kind of dopers who enjoy spending our free time online debating...most of us are either in school or have jobs..and if we are losers, we can blame the weed...what's your excuse?

25 posted on 09/03/2002 8:14:28 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: Illbay
They probably made it up. yea, that's it. Well, even if they didn't, it's not that many people and no one I care about so it's no big deal.

Sheesh. What rock do you guys crawl out from under?

26 posted on 09/03/2002 8:16:48 AM PDT by MileHi
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To: Illbay; JediGirl
There, for all to see, fellow FReepers, is a typical attitude found among the dope-lovin' crowd.

There, for all to see, fellow FReepers, is a typical attitude found among the dope-lovin' "I'm too block-headed to differentiate between dope-lovin' and those who value freedom" crowd.

27 posted on 09/03/2002 8:17:29 AM PDT by Eagle Eye
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To: JediGirl
what's your excuse?

I'm guessing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

28 posted on 09/03/2002 8:19:25 AM PDT by Dakmar
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To: Illbay
They see LE as a threat,...

Negative, I have several cousins that are Sheriff's deputies in the parish (county) I live in, and they share my opinion about marijuana being illegal, that it shouldn't.

Dopers are thorough losers...

Ah, yes, coming from another blank profile wonder. What exactly have you done for this country that allows you to even have an opinion? I bet nothing, no military service, and apparently no Law Enforcement service. Just another bitter bastard trying to cut people down to satisfy some sick desire to make yourself feel good.

29 posted on 09/03/2002 8:19:34 AM PDT by Pern
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To: goodieD
Consider the source my friend...

I know, I know. I need to keep him and his ilk from getting me hot under the collar. Your right, consider the sourch and overcome it.

30 posted on 09/03/2002 8:21:47 AM PDT by Pern
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To: Illbay
Hi there, Illbay - good to see you've stopped beating your wife long enough to join the discussion. Are you drunk yet?

Wow, this whole "making unfounded accusations and calling names instead of debating the facts" method of posting sure is easier than actually participating in discussions and debating based on knowledge and facts. No wonder you WODdies use it so much...

31 posted on 09/03/2002 8:22:19 AM PDT by truenospinzone
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To: Illbay
the rest of us see it clearly

Unfortunately for the "rest of you", this is a conservative forum. That means most of the people reading it will recognize and understand the pupose of dogma when they see it.

32 posted on 09/03/2002 8:23:50 AM PDT by tacticalogic
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To: Illbay
The tiny number of people here are far less than died in boating accidents last year. But you don't hear anyone calling for the banning of pleasure boating, because the upside FAR outweighs the downside.

And there is a "typical attitude" found among the, "I equate the natural risks of living free with being mowed down by government JBTs" crowd. After all, dyin' is dyin' right?

33 posted on 09/03/2002 8:23:59 AM PDT by southern rock
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To: Dakmar
Nah, it's obviously severe cranial-rectal submersion.
34 posted on 09/03/2002 8:24:14 AM PDT by Eagle Eye
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To: JediGirl
Modesto 11-Year-Old Was Killed In Drug Raid.

The family of an 11-year-old Modesto boy killed in his home during a narcotics sweep has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and several of its police officers for $2.55 million. The total is in addition to the $450,000 settlement the family will receive from the federal government for the boy's death.

San Francisco lawyer Arturo J. Gonzalez, who represented the family of Alberto Sepulveda, said Wednesday that the $3 million total settlement is believed to be the largest paid by government for the wrongful death of a child.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1132/a02.html?157
35 posted on 09/03/2002 8:25:16 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: Illbay
Hey Illbay - had a drink lately, JBT? Guess what? Alcohol is a DRUG!! Since ALL drugs are "dope" to you and your ilk, you're a DOPER! Illbay is a dopehead (among other things).
36 posted on 09/03/2002 8:28:02 AM PDT by 11B3
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To: Illbay
#20

make your case without the personal insults and name calling, please.

37 posted on 09/03/2002 8:29:52 AM PDT by Admin Moderator
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To: Illbay
It's very sad and in some cases its a crime, when innocent folks are caught up in the drug culture and when law enforcemnt activities cross over the line. But people have to realize, mistakes are made, life isn't fair and sometimes its downright dangerous.

This type of thread is mainly for bleeding heart libertarians, conspiracy theorists and people who support drug legalization. Mostly for people who see a sinister plot behind everything in life.

38 posted on 09/03/2002 8:31:07 AM PDT by Reagan Man
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To: 11B3
Hey Illbay - had a drink lately, JBT? Guess what? Alcohol is a DRUG!!

Actually, I don't drink, and never have.

And further, I consider the repeal of Prohibition to be yet another mistake of the FDR administration.

We'd be better off without alcohol as well as dope.

39 posted on 09/03/2002 8:32:34 AM PDT by Illbay
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To: Illbay
And it's not like you dope-heads haven't been lying to yourselves and everyone else in your lives for many years now, so what's one more?

Jesus, buddy.

40 posted on 09/03/2002 8:33:55 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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