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 have window bars, an alarm, a dog and a gun. I'm not paranoid. Neither are my neighbors. We are just prepared. It's not a prison. It's security.
"I have window bars, an alarm, a dog and a gun. I'm not paranoid. Neither are my neighbors. We are just prepared. It's not a prison. It's security."
If you live behind bars you are imprisoned. Whether or not it is paranoi depends on your neighborhood. Either way, if you are behind bars, you are the prisoner.
"I have window bars, an alarm, a dog and a gun. I'm not paranoid."
Folks with those sort of "security" measures either live in a very bad neighborhood, or they are paranoid.
You say you live in a good neighborhood. So what's up with the barred windows? Do your neighbors have barred windows as well?
You maybe totally right. But I know these guys and it could have been my brother involved in this raid. And ya know what, he would lay his life on the line in a NY second for you or me, no questions asked. Just like he did when he and a number of other APD re-enlisted in the military after 9/11. They left their jobs to go to Afghanistan, like my brother did, or Iraq, to protect us. They are not all yahoo murderers that everyone on this thread has assumed. Sorry, I guess I am just to close to this one.
I have a dog you must step over to get into the house and even in this day and age, I don't even lock my doors and I sometimes keep my keys and purse in the car. Sounds pretty naive doesn't it? But really, I don't know anybody who locks their doors in my neighborhood. If I need to borrow something, I just walk in and get what I need, yes I'll call and ask first, but nobody has eachothers keys. I guess I'm lucky or we're all just dumb in some peoples eyes. Personally, I like living in a neighborhood where there are eyes everywhere and we watch out for eachother. We did have one problem house, but we all didn't like what was going on and I guess we made ourselves such pests, the person left.
I don't see where "everybody" thinks the police were "murderers". We are questioning a technique that criminals use too, sometimes resulting in a home owner not being able to tell the difference in a "NY" second and people getting hurt or killed. I'm sure that these guys are sick about what happened. Tell your brother thank for serving his country.
That's nice about not having to lock your door. I used to live in a small town like that. Here, if you are going to put any decorations or ornaments outside, you better lock them down. My mom was visiting awhile back and they had a car tow beside their motor home. I told them they needed to lock it up. Just like the above person, I started getting the "paranoid" comments about a "nice " neighborhood and no one going to bother it. They chained it to the basketball pole though, more to humor me than anything else. About 2 o'clock in the moring I awoke to a loud clang and the house vibrated. They came running in cussing. Someone had tried to hook up and steal it. They made it to the street before it came loose. Sad that it's like that now days.
Sorry. I see what you mean now.
That's worse as the drug buy that the warrant was based on took place "that afternoon", so now that leaves them only a few hours at the most to investigate who lived at that address and do their due diligence.
Here's one.
Police Impersonator Convicted for Home Invasion
TALLAHASSEE - Attorney General Charlie Crist and Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle today announced the conviction of a Miami-Dade County man for his involvement in an armed home invasion and robbery in Miami Lakes. A jury found Israel Frometa Lake, 34, guilty for impersonating a police officer, breaking into a home, and committing an armed robbery while threatening the residents of the home with a gun. Lake is already serving two life sentences for similar crimes committed in Broward County.
In January 2003, Lake and two cohorts gained entry into the victims' home after Lake identified himself as a police officer and said he and the other two men were looking for someone who had run inside the house. Once inside, Lake pulled a gun on the victims – a man, his pregnant wife and 7-year-old son. The robbers forced the woman and the boy into the bathroom, then wrapped the man in a blanket and held the gun to his head while they ransacked the house, stealing approximately $80,000 in cash and jewelry. Lake confessed to the robbery and told police the handgun, badge, and plastic ties he used could be found in the trunk of his car.
Was the raid a bust?Mary Silva, a 68-year-old retiree, said deputies got the wrong house when they burst into her Winton Way apartment at 6:30 a.m. on the day of the raids.
Silva said she was sleeping when she heard loud banging at her front door and a voice calling "Open up!"
Before she could answer, Silva said, deputies broke through her front door and threw a smoke bomb onto her carpet. As Silva stood in her nightgown, about 10 officers surrounded her with weapons drawn, she said.
They shouted, "Where is he? Where is he?"
Silva told deputies she lives alone. She said they responded, "Shut up! Don't move!"
The team was looking for 24-year-old Reginaldo Ramirez, who lives next door to Silva.
But the search warrant deputies gave Silva lists an entirely different address -- not Silva's house or the house next door. Silva said deputies gave her the search warrant several hours after the initial raid.
Pazin said deputies may have transposed numbers in the address on the warrant, but that law enforcement acted in good faith when they entered Silva's house.
Here are two examples from Texas (commentary by Radley Balko):
- Tony Martinez. On December 20, 2001, police in Travis County, Texas storm a mobile home on a no-knock drug warrant. Nineteen-year-old Tony Martinez, nephew of the man named in the warrant, is asleep on the couch at the time of the raid. Martinez was never suspected of any crime. When Martinez rises from the couch as police break into the home, deputy Derek Hill shoots Martinez in the chest, killing him. Martinez is unarmed.
A grand jury later declines to indict Hill in the shooting, and he continues his employment with the police department. The same Travis County paramilitary unit would later erroneously raid a woman's home after mistaking ragweed for marijuana plants.
So if police conduct a no-knock raid and mistakenly kill a completely innocent, unarmed person, it's no one's fault, because these raids are naturally dangerous and volatile, and it's easy to see how mistaken identity might happen.
Sources: Clair Osborn, "Survivors sue Travis county over fatal raid," Austin American-Statesman, May 10, 2003, p. B1; Claire Osborn, "Deputy not indicted in drug raid death," Austin American-Statesman, April 4, 2002.
- Edwin Delamora. On February 15, 2001, the same task force that would later mistakenly shoot and kill Tony Martinez raids the Del Valle, Texas mobile home of Edwin Delamora, who lives with his wife and two children. As two deputies beat down his door with a battering ram, Delamora fires through the door, fearing he is under attack. His wife is on the phone with 911 at the time he fires. One bullet from his gun strikes and kills sheriff's deputy Keith Ruiz.
Delamora had no previous criminal record, and his defense says the raid on his home was influenced by an anonymous informant who turned out to be the brother of two sheriff's deputies. Information about the informant's relationship with the police was suppressed at trial.
Delamora was eventually convicted of capital murder, and sentenced to life in prison. Police found less than an ounce of methamphetamine and one ounce of marijuana in his home. Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty because of substantial doubt about whether or not Delamora knew the people outside his door were police. That decision sparked heavy criticism from Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (now a U.S. Senator), who moved for a law requiring the death penalty to be an option in any capital murder case.
Time magazine would later report that people in the community were suspicious of the narcotics task force, describing the team's general attitude as "those task-force guys were Rambo wannabes."
So if men are attempting to break into your home, and you mistake them for criminal intruders -- bolstered by the fact that your wife calls 911 -- you get no deference for the volatility or confrontational nature of SWAT raids. Mistake a cop for an intruder when firing your gun, and you're going to jail for a long, long time. And God help you if there's some dope in your house, too. When a member of the same SWAT team later mistakes and unarmed, innocent man for a deadly threat, and consequently shoots and kills him, the police officer won't even be disciplined, much less sent to jail.
Sources: John Cloud, "Guarding Death's Door," Time, July 14, 2003; Jordan Smith, "Another Drug War Casualty," Austin Chronicle, July 19, 2002; "Delamora attorney says key facts were withheld," Austin American-Statesman, July 29, 2002, p. A1; "Cornyn: Death penalty must be option when officer killed," Associated Press, July 25, 2002.
I am starting to wonder what good is the second amendment. If you shoot a police officer who does not identify themselves in one of these screwed up questionable raids you are charged with murder. If you shoot a street thug who invades your house in similar fashion, and if he lives you know most likely you will get sued.
LRM: She knew who she was shooting at. She figured she would survive because who would shoot an old lady. She would play the race card too. The problem with getting old is believing this crap. She got what she deserved.
You "don't know if he is telling the truth" but that's good enough anyway to justify breaking in someone's door while cocked and locked?Informant in shooting says he never bought drugs at house
Says he was asked to lieThe confidential informant on whose word Atlanta police raided the house of an 88-year-old woman is now saying he never purchased drugs from her house and was told by police to lie and say he did.
"The informant said he had no knowledge of going into that house and purchasing drugs," Pennington said. "We don't know if he's telling the truth."
None of those three has turned out to be anywhere even close to the truth.
AJC today: The police chief said officers found marijuana inside the house but "not a large quantity." ... Johnston grabbed a rusty six-shot revolver and emptied it.
If any of this is true then why should we believe them about the marijuanna? We were told the drugs were sold to an officer and now they say, no it was an informant but they don't know if he tells the truth or not? What a mess.
"If any of this is true then why should we believe them about the marijuanna?"
There is absolutely no reason to believe they found marijuanna in her home base on the investigation thus far...well, unless it was uhmmm planted.
Btw, the original article I linked you to was removed. Atleast the one that replaced that page is relative and contains a line about the informant being asked to lie.
If it's true that they asked him to lie (which is hard to believe) them planting evidence shouldn't be that far off. I will be surprised if there was even any pot there.
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