Posted on 11/29/2006 2:39:59 PM PST by AdamSelene235
Atlanta, GA (AHN) - An unidentified police informant is in protective custody following a television interview in which he said officers had told him to lie about buying narcotics at a home where an elderly woman was shot and killed during a drug raid.
Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said at a press conference Monday, that the informant's comments contradicted statements made by officers who were at the scene when 88-year-old Kathryn Johnston was gunned down by plain-clothes officers.
"The officers are saying one thing, the confidential informant is saying something else," said Pennington, in his first public comments about the shooting.
Police had claimed that the informant told them he had bought narcotics from a drug dealer at the house where Johnston was killed. During an interview, however Monday on WAGA-TV, a man who identified himself as the informant said officers concocted the story after the shooting. The features of the informant were obscured during the televised interview.
Police Chief Pennington said the informant had made similar comments to the police department's Internal Affairs unit.
Three police officers were wounded during the Nov. 21 drug raid. Officers said Johnston was killed after she opened fire on investigators.
Pennington told reporters that officers said they recovered a small amount of marijuana during the raid. Investigators had said they went to the house seeking to bust a cocaine sale. They entered the home on a "no-knock" warrant. The shooting has prompted the Atlanta Police Department to review its use of such warrants.
Johnston's family and neighbors said the elderly woman had an intense fear of being assaulted, and that she lived cloistered behind locked doors and barred windows.
Family members gave Johnston's age as 92, but a report by the medical examiner said records show she was 88.
The seven narcotics officers and a police sergeant involved in the incident have been suspended, with pay, pending the outcome of the investigation. The names of the officers have not been released.
The shooting has angered many Atlanta residents and prompted a wide scale investigation involving the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Fulton County District Attorney's office.
obstruction of justice - accessories 2nd degree murder
So why is he in protective custody? Protection from whom?
Hope that CI has someplace in mind to live after this is over.
Drug informants are so reliable.
can I get a witness!!!? TESTI-LIE!
Well, any family member can make a four year mistake.
I knew their sotry was a cover up from day one.
story
That the Reverends Al, Jesses, Louie, et al aren't down in Atlanta 24/7 getting face time in front of any/all TV cameras screaming that this poor woman was MURDERED by the cops.
I should think Jesse would drop the Michael Richards story and come running to hype this up.
Maybe the cops were black?
A cover-up for what, exactly?
"The officers are saying one thing, the confidential informant is saying something else," said Pennington,
So between a group of cops and one drug dealer, you give the benefit of the doubt to the drug dealer. Speaks volumes.
D'oh!
Seems like the right equation to me.
The sad part is, we know so little about this incident that we don't even know that much. That does not stop the anti-LEO FReepers from convicting these cops, though.
"Seems like the right equation to me."
OK, let's replace the cops with the drug dealers then. Let's start with the ones that patrol you neighborhood, though.
An unidentified police informant... said officers had told him to lie about buying narcotics at a home...Police Chief Pennington said the informant had made similar comments to the police department's Internal Affairs unit.
Pennington told reporters that officers said they recovered a small amount of marijuana during the raid.
If the officers told the informant to lie it's reasonable to assume that the marijuana they found was planted by one of the officers.
Isn't the WOD wonderful --NOT!
The same drug dealer's word that was supposedly good enough to no knock raid the house in the first place?
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