Posted on 11/22/2006 8:16:37 PM PST by AdamSelene235
ATLANTA -- Three Atlanta police officers were shot and wounded and an elderly woman killed at a house in northwest Atlanta Tuesday night.
The woman, identified by relatives as 92-year old Kathryn Johnston, opened fire on the officers from the narcotics division at a house at 933 Neal Street, according to officials.
Atlanta Police Asst. Chief Alan Dreher said at a news conference Wednesday that an undercover officer made a drug purchase at Johnston’s address late Tuesday afternoon from a male suspect. Officers were able to obtain a search warrant after that.
Asst. Chief Dreher said as they were executing the search warrant, the officers announced themselves and then forced open the door. Officials say the warrant was a “No Knock” warrant – meaning that the officers did not knock before forcing open the door, but they did announce themselves.
Dreher said as soon as the officers forced open the door, Johnston shot at the officers and the officers returned fire to protect themselves. One officer was shot 3 times – once in the leg, on the side of the face and once in his bulletproof vest. One officer was hit in the leg and another hit in their arm. All officers are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation – as is common.
Officials say they have not made any arrests in the case and they have not located the male suspect. Dreher said suspected narcotics were recovered from the home but they are awaiting lab results to confirm the items are drugs.
Dreher said a marked patrol vehicle was parked in front of the residence and the word “Police” was written across the front and back of the narcotics team’s vests. He also said only a matter of minutes passed between when officers arrived on the scene and when they forced open the door.
Asst. Chief Dreher referred to the incident as a, “tragic and unfortunate incident.”
The woman's niece, Sarah Dozier, says that she bought her aunt a gun to protect herself. Relatives believe Johnston was frightened by the officers and opened fire.
Her relatives say Johnston had lived in the house for about 17 years.
"They kicked her door down talking about drugs, there's no drugs in that house. And they realize now, they've got the wrong house," Dozier said. "I'm mad as hell." Officials say they had the correct house and that the warrant they had was legal.
She says the officers "shot her down like a dog."
Police say the investigation is continuing.
I am a racist???? You don't know me!!! How dare you call me a racist. I wouldn't stoop to calling you an @$$hole.
I believe the "cops" were the real criminals in this instance. They murdered a 92 year old woman in her own home executing an unconstitutional 'no-knock' warrant/search.
Security in one's home and possessions was one of the issues at stake in the Founding Revolution.
If the WOD requires tactics such as presumptive confiscation of assets and the shooting of innocent people in no-knock entries, then it's time to call off the WOD.
It may also be time to consider...that you may need more firepower for home defense.
I'm not a libertarian, and I'm crying foul. Kinda screws up your theory, doesn't it?
I'm throwing the BS flag again. In a prior post you said that she should have known the cops were there, because their car had been parked out front for five minutes. That's presumably the assumption they operated under. If true, what's the point of no-knock entry?
Cops who participate in no-knock entry create a bad situation for everyone involved. The officials who sign off on the policy, IMO, are morally and legally responsible for the consequences.
True statement.
Yeah, I am sure that's a good point. My neighbor has questioned his own common sense for having been an undercover narcotics cop. I think he actually enjoyed the danger, though. In any case, he stopped after awhile and went into crime scene investigation. Unexpectedly he has become something of an artist, does wood turning and often has a booth at art fairs where he sells amazingly beautiful bowls and pitchers and other things that he's made, mostly from wood that he finds around the place, discarded or whatever.
"I believe the "cops" were the real criminals in this instance. They murdered a 92 year old woman in her own home executing an unconstitutional 'no-knock' warrant/search. "
While you and I may be convinced these raids are unConstitutional, 5 justices have prevailed and ruled them Constitutional.
Meanwhile all over the nation home invaders are using the same tactics as the police. If you have no reason to believe the police should be bashing in your door, is it not reasonable to assume the door bashers are street thugs?
The only way we can be safe and secure in our homes now is to force local jurisdictions to outlaw these sort of raids. Then there will be no doubt that the guys bashing down your door are there to do harm to you and your family...and you can shoot to kill.
Yes, that's the problem.
THERE IS NOT ONE SINGLE OFFICER THAT IS PLEASED WITH WHAT WENT DOWN. THEY ARE JUST AS SICKENED BY IT.
I'm sure that makes the 92 year old woman feel better...
So, we are to believe that a 92 year old lady manged to get multiple shots off before "cocked and locked" officer managed to shoot her? Possible? Maybe. Likely? Not very.
Unless she was using a shotgun, and you'd think someone might have mentioned that. Hard not to notice.
With 103 rounds in the walls, I'd say there were full auto, rock and roll, firearms involved in this one.
Nicotine is more addictive than many of those. It's also at least as harmful than the most common drug of abuse, that is marijuana, and much more addictive.
The news is filled with daily accounts of Blacks making bad choices in life and getting killed for it, most without any intervention from the police. Most of the time the police show up after one black has killed another. A lot of misery in the black community has to do with drugs and programs designed by social liberals who make a living advising you how to scam the system through dysfunctional living. The crime statistics are even more telling about the moral depravity in black communities. So go about believing what you will. Your existence won't change so long as you stay the course.
Perhaps your memory is clouded with drugs. In what post did I write such words? If you can't produce the post, maybe you are a LIBERTARIAN.
You don't obviously. In most cases however, and by law in some states, you can assume someone breaking down your door at Oh-Dark-Thirty, doesn't just want to use the phone. Theft during the nighttime, or burglary any time is justification for use of deadly force in Texas, let alone assault with a deadly weapon. Drug investigators are often, but not always of course, pretty scruffy looking individuals, not your typical cop, and in the middle of the night the "police" across their jackets, which usually don't look much like regular police uniforms, may not register.
Maybe one partial solution would be to have warrants, especially the "no knock" type, served only by uniformed officers. Might even save a few officers lives.
Maybe she did. I can't see a 92 y/o getting off 5 shots, five hits anyway maybe more shots, against police that are armed and alert. Maybe she had a shotgun loaded with buckshot. If so, 5 hits is still doing a darn good job of centering the pattern on the stack.
All warrants are supposed to be issued based on "probable cause". It's in the Constitution.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Fourth Amendment, Constitution for the United States.
As far as I'm concerned, breaking down the door in the middle of the night is the very epitome of an "unreasonable search", warrant or no warrant, unless there is probable cause to believe some innocent third party is in grave danger of imminent harm. (Hostage, etc). Otherwise knock on the door and serve your warrent. Don't whisper "Police Search Warrant", a few seconds before, or as, you crash through the door. If you do, expect the Second Amendment to "do its thing".
But they never ran into an armed granny with the intentional fortitude to try and protect herself.
Do you all realize how much time is spent on murders because of the drugs, the ones that don't make the paper
They had a similar problem in Chicago, and other cities, then repealed prohibition. Murders didn't go away, but you didn't see beer and liquor distributors shooting it out in streets over territory either.
And people run red lights for years, then one day they get T-boned.
It's not so much a case of "Bad Cops", usually, just a case "bad procedure". "Proceedures" like this are in part the reason we have a 4th amendment.
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