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.
If she was innocent and had survived, would she have been in trouble for shooting them?
They must have been armed with AR-15, using the 30 round magazines, or the sub machine gun variant with similar magazine capacity (32 rounds). Still, not very good fire discipline.
Practically speaking? probably. Legally, no. That's also explicit in Texas statute law. You can use force, under certain situations even deadly force to resist excessive force, even by an officer making an otherwise legitimate arrest, "if, before the actor offers any resistance, the peace officer (or person acting at his direction) uses or attempts to use greater force than necessary to make the arrest or search; " The next sections give the cases when deadly force is permitted, but they apply whether the offender is a police officer or not. Fearing for you own life is one of those justifications.
I am in 100% agreement with you about the procedure being the problem. It's become personal to me because I know them and what kind of people and cops they are and its hard to see them be called murderers. And as you said the procedure is wrong and hopefully they will change how it is done. Like I said, my brother does these types raids everyday in Atlanta, not for drugs, but for fugatives, usually murderers. My heart breaks for that woman. She was used by the dealer Sam, and paid with her life. And yes there were drugs found in her house, like I said she probably knew nothing about it. She was a recluse, she lived there 17 years and her neighbors didn't even know her, most had never seen her. I'm not justifying anything or trying to make light of the situation but, the papers had said 103 rounds were fired and that is untrue, and I presumed she was shot up but when I talked to my brother he said she was hit in the body twice, with some wounds to her extremities, nothing like they are making it sound in the paper. I know there are bad cops out there, and someone posted that only bad cops are involved in this kind of work, which is outright wrong. The top brass of Atlanta Police set this procedure up, the street cop is doing what he is told.
She had a 38
It was not in the middle of the night, it was just before nightfall, which down here is like between 6 and 7 pm.
I don't believe she would, not in Georgia. Everyone has guns in Georgia and they are totally legal, as was hers.
Hmmm.... these relatives that are saying this is such a tragedy were probably the ones selling drugs out of her house. They should be charged with elder abuse if nothing else. Its too far fetched to me to believe that everyone in that house was 'innocent'.
Yep. Throw them in jail. We can get evidence later.
I was symapathetic for the niece if all is as she says but now I see they are bringing Cynthia in to investigate. How Ironic is that?
One of the excuses we wouldn't accept from the Nazi soldiers is they were only following orders.
A bad cop can be one that never questions orders.A really bad cop is one that knowingly orders other cops to use questionable tactics and procedures.
If it comes down to the choice of doing what is morally and ethically right or following orders the cop ought to choose right;that may mean finding another job.It might be speaking out about bad policy either through channels or publicly.
Sometimes the bravest person is the one who doesn't go along to get along.And the price can be high.
Too bad she didn't get 'em with headshots, then we wouldn't even be having this discussion and they would have got what they obviously deserved.
You and I can bitch all we want about what is acceptable procedure. Who you should really be taking the warrants up with is the Supreme Court of the United States. It is their interpretation of the law that sets the protocol. A judge signed off on the warrant, the cops executed it. Have no fear, the cops in this case will get their due. Probably even jail time. It is tragic, that a 88 yr. old was left to live in such a cesspool by her family. It is tragic that she is still in the morgue, unclaimed and basically unidentified by family members. I don't know how it is in Indiana, but in Atlanta it is a whole different world than you would know of, unless of course you lived here.
1. Nicotine has only equivocal reinforcing effects in laboratory animals.
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3. Activation of brain reward mechanisms is not equivalent to addiction. Nicotine may activate brain reward mechanisms (e.g., produce a mildly pleasurable sensation), but so do all rewards (including a good cup of coffee, sex, or a great steak). IOW, reinforcement is not a sufficient characteristic for addiction, but is definitely a necessary characteristic.
Those decisions attacking or eliminating citizens' rights often wer 5-4.
I often wish/wonder the framers had specified a majority plus 1 in all the branches.
Of course it's a wonder the reached an agreement.
Actually it's toobad they don't use a different procedure since following the shooting there were apparently plenty of uniformed officers,marked cars with lights and sirens able to respond.
If the police would stop routine using these no-knock raids this kind of result would be exceedingly rare.Just because the courts approved the no-knock in exceptional circumstances doesn't mean it had to become the norm.
"If a person lived in a high crime area , it wouldn't be that hard to make a "hall" and add an entrance door, maybe like a burglar bar. I have this on my porch. It's enclosed. You have to get thru it before getting to the door."
Maybe you got the wrong respondee. It happens sometimes.
Still, the home of the victim did not have an enclosed porch.
I'm not sure I understand what you are posting. My suggestion wasn't to hinder LE but offer more protection against fear of criminals barging in..
Ok, she already lived in a prison. She had bars on her windows and she had bars on her doors.She was the prisoner living in fear in a free society. Was she was paranoid? Who are we to judge? We never walked in her shoes.
My point? You simply can't do much more to protect yourself when you are poor. She did as best she could.
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