Man Impersonating DEA During Home Invasion, Shot, Killed

Gun Watch ^ | 25 July, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

At about 1 a.m. on July 18th, 2018, in Alquippa, Pennsylvania Brionna Hicks stepped outside on the porch of her home to smoke a cigarette. Her mother was upstairs with three children. Her brother, Anthony Farley, lived in the other half of the duplex.

Two men, wearing shirts with DEA printed on them, ran up to the porch, yelling DEA! and DEA survellance! They tried to handcuff Brionna. She fought them and started screaming. From post-gazzette.com, 18 July:

Her mother came downstairs and was confronted by a tall man wearing something white on his head, according to the complaint. The man pointed a gun at the mother and told her to lay face down on the stairs.

The two men then tried to drag Ms. Hicks out of the house, she said, at which point her brother, who lives in the adjoining half of the duplex, came to the front door.

The unidentified man shot her brother, Anthony Farley, in the neck.

Mr. Farley returned fire, striking the man, according to the complaint.

Brionna's brother, Anthony, ended up in the hospital. He will recover. His assailant ended up dead, on the porch.

The gunfight took place between the two doors pictured on the white duplex. It appears to be about 20 feet.

This illustrates a growing problem of criminals impersonating law enforcement officers to gain an advantage over their victims.

It was less of a problem when most police were uniformed and used official vehicles. Now many raids are unannounced, or use almost no warning in the service of a warrant.

One of the primary purposes of a warrant is to inform the person in charge of the premises to be searched that the officers doing the searching are doing so under due process of law. A search warrant protects both the owner of the premises and the police. Proper service of a search warrant also prevents searches of other premises or places not on the warrant.

An owner of premises does not have to allow police onto the premises unless they have a warrant.

The war on drugs has vastly expanded the use of "no knock" warrants, which have been issued promiscuously in recent years. The mere ownership of legal firearms has been used as a premise to issue a no-knock warrant.

It has become much harder for citizens to know if the people breaking down the door are police or criminals. If the police do not announce themselves, and wait for a reasonable time to have the person in charge of the premises look at a warrant and determine that it is valid, and what may be searched for, how is a person to know if the invasion of their home is occurring under the rule of law?

I was involved in a situation in Australia where premises were searched. The officers with the warrant were not present. A resident asked for the paperwork. It could not be produced. The resident refused them entry. The officers waited until the paperwork was present. They were allowed entry, and conducted their search.  That is the way most warrants should work in the United States.

U.S. courts have ruled that some warrants need not to be present for the person to be served and the search conducted. How is the person to know if the officials have a valid warrant or not, if they cannot see the document?

In many cases, they do not know.

Police officers have been killed when they have attempted to serve warrants without sufficient notice. Homeowners who have shot police officers have been found not guilty by juries.

Criminals that disguise themselves as police or other law enforcement are another reason use of no-knock warrants should be severely limited, and sufficient time given to occupants to respond to an announcement by police.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

[originalbuckeye]

I guess the Feds are lucky that Manafort didn’t have a gun under his pillow. This type of ‘surprise’ invasion is fraught with danger for the Feds AND the person targeted.

[logi_cal869]

Lousy story.

I wanted to know motive; story ends up beating a dead horse. Obviously they were targeted.

Why?

[Magnum44]

It strikes me as being kind of odd that the house and yard are fenced in.

Why? If I lived in that neighborhood (which I would not), my fence would be comparable to the Trump southern border wall. Its the first layer of defense. The brother had the second layer (his gun).

[FLT-bird]

The other criminal in this case needs to be convicted on felony murder charges since his partner got killed. He needs to be put away for a long long time.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Yep.

There are a very small number of reason why SWAT should be called out or a no knock warrant should be used.

Kidnapping might be one.

Right now most of the reasons either fall into, "we didn't want them to destroy evidence" (not a good reason) or "how else can we justify our cool toys" (really not a good reason).

This and the police tactic of tapping on the door and whispering "police" before taking a ram to the door should get all involved fired.

Especially since they have trouble at times finding the right house.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It strikes me as being kind of odd that the house and yard are fenced in.

Why?

Lots of houses in the city have fenced in yards. Renting having a house with a fenced in yard is a great selling point for people with dogs.

All four of my rentals are partly or fully fenced.

[FreeAtlanta]

after a little research, here is the hero brother.

Good job Mr. Farley. I am sorry you were wounded and hope you have a speedy recovery.

[FreeAtlanta]

Perp identified as Terrell Henson

[NorthMountain]

Otherwise, how do you tell a cop from a criminal?

You don't. You can't.

Anybody breaking down your door at 0h-dark-thirty is a criminal. You dare not assume otherwise. Act accordingly.

Police and Judges: Take note. We the People, your masters, are armed. Be polite and be professional. Show up during the day and announce yourselves. Show a warrant, or go away.

[Fred Hayek]

There was a similar problem in Houston 20 years ago where home invaders were dressed up as DEA/FBI/what have you.

[FreeAtlanta]

this is crazy...

The Beaver County Coroner’s Office identified the man killed Wednesday in a double shooting in Aliquippa as 32-year-old Terrell Henson.

Henson died of gunshot wounds to the head and chest and Coroner David Gabauer ruled the death a homicide. State police are investigating instead of Aliquippa’s department, which has placed three officers — including its chief and assistant chief — on leave over the past two months.

Dana Lamar Penny, 36, of Aliquippa, is wanted on homicide and a litany of other charges in connection with Wednesday’s shooting.

State police allege in a criminal complaint that Henson and Penny identified themselves as federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents when they approached a house on the city’s Third Avenue and confronted Briona Hicks, who was smoking on a front porch.... trib live article on shooting

Seems like a really bad part of town.

[Fred Hayek]

Anyone who makes a SWATing call should be charged with attempted capital murder. If anyone is killed as a result, whether the deceased is the target or a law enforcement officer, the person who made the call should be subject to capital murder charges, with the death penalty.

[CodeToad]

Buy the man a steak dinner!

[katana]

The real DEA: “Warrant? Warrant? We don’t need no stinkin’ warrant!”

[PLMerite]

“Scary stuff. Sounds like she would have been trafficked, or raped and dead. Thank God for the brother.”

I doubt they were after her. Faking being DEA agents is a good sign that the house was targeted because they thought drugs or drug money was there.

[moovova]

DEAd.

[heartwood]

And some of the homeowners have been found guilty. Corey Maye in Mississippi was sentenced to death, although the verdict was later overturned and he pled guilty to manslaughter, ten years time served.

[GnuThere]

Oh, that’s interesting. But I think it did say they were dragging her out of the house. Although I suppose they could have left her in the yard.

[Dr. Sivana]

Very much like the town I grew up in. Each house put up separately with its own character. Fence looks older, and as others noted great for pets/children.

[PLMerite]

That is, of course, just my take on it. I certainly could be mistaken.

If they’re druggies, they’re always half expecting the DEA to come crashing in, so home invaders would have been playing to their fears.