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.
But...I thought I was a Libertarian:')
She could have seen these guys buying drugs from this Sam, on her property and thought they were drug dealers too.<<<<<<<<<
Sam will no doubt turn out to be her niece's son or somebody somehouw connected to her or her family. Hard to imagine letting a 92 year old live alone in a neighborhood that dangerous. OTOH, I know how stubborn they can be and refuse to leave or move in with anyone. There's more to this story, I think.
Good Night . You too. Happy Thanksgiving yall. Prayers for the officers and their families. Either way, this has to be hard for them.
The better way that is probably going to come about from this is freer use of concussion bombs, tear gas and automatic weapons in future home invasions to make sure the next homeowner doesn't have the chance to put a cop in the hospital.
No, the war on drugs is a way of enforcing laws. Whether it is effectively waged, or the laws are good ones can be debated. Don't like 'em? Work to get 'em changed!
And I bet the odds are MUCH greater that any one of us could be killed by one of our own men and women in blue than some jihad joe.
Hyperbole? Absolutely-frickin'-not. While we our attention is turned to the terrorists overseas, we're getting our ass spanked right here at home on a million different fronts.
An innocent person killed during a botched drug raid is every bit as unjustly dead as someone killed by a skyscraper collapsing after being rammed by a bunch of radical muslims.
1) Tobacco use has not dropped 50% since 1990. In 1990, the rate was about 25% of the US pop. In 2006, the rate is about 21%, according to the CDC. Not quite your 50% drop. Additionally, that drop can be largely attributed, not to your precious education, but to laws passed outlawing smoking in public places. California, for instance, had a much larger drop in smoking rates than the nation. Almost certainly the aggressive anti-smoking legislation passed there has had a large effect on the smoking rates. Care to make a correlation with drugs?
2) To compare nicotine to scheduled narcotics in addiction potential is somewhat laughable. (Cue laugh track)
She shot 3 police officers-do you get to do that after a certain age?
According to the little political test, I am currently centrist in the libertarian quadrant (a change from when I took it 2 years ago) and ended up libertarian in the conservative quadrant. Oh heck. I'm in there somewhere. I've always said I'm Libertarian, but my conservativism keeps me sane.
Have a wonderful day, everyone.
I agree, which is why I refuse to rush to judgement.
Very true.
So if men in civilian clothes break through your door, you are supposed to wait until they shoot first before you can use deadly force against them?
How about this strategy? Cop goes up to door, knocks, and asks to speak to occupant. <<<<<<<<<<
Many an officer has been killed on the job serving warrants before they ever got to the door. And often, the worst threat isn't even the person you're serving, it can be the nutcase next door who has a warrant out for his arrest and thinks you're coming to get him when you walk up the driveway or approach the house next door.
There are many, many times when ruses are used to gather information, but if "Sam" was known to be armed/dangerous/hinky to begin with, they may have decided to get in as quickly as possible, which is often the safest for all concerned before anyone inside starts anything stupid.
Obviously, the key is to be extraordinarily careful in gathering intel and putting the operation together so that nobody ends up hurt, which is overwhelmingly how it usually turns out. The tragic endings are not always the fault of the officers...
How do you know they were going to shoot?
So if men in civilian clothes break through your door, you are supposed to wait until they shoot first before you can use deadly force against them?<<<<<<<<<<<<
If, as cited in this case, the men are wearing vests which have great big letters saying "POLICE" on them, and there is a marked patrol car out in front, I'd think twice about firing away.
So she thought they were what? Competing drug gang members? Gimme a break. If the cops were wrong, I will be the first one to go after them. But I want facts. Do you?
And many innocent people have been killed by policemen in no-knock raids.
Police can at least take appropriate precautions, such as wearing bullet-proof vests, while innocent civilians sitting at home unaware of any danger cannot take any such precautions once the police come busting through the door.
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