Posted on 12/17/2007 8:37:42 AM PST by Ken H
Police blamed bad information for sending a SWAT team into a north Minneapolis house early Sunday morning in a raid that ended with shots exchanged between police -- who were struck by bullets -- and the resident, who said he was just defending his family.
The homeowner, who does not speak English, told his brother that he thought the police were the "bad guys" after they broke through the back door of the house, where he lives with his wife and six children. He fired and hit two police officers, who were not injured thanks to their bullet-proof vests and helmets, police said in a statement.
The Police Department's SWAT team was trying to search the two-story house at 12:46 a.m. in the 1300 block of Logan Avenue N., as part of an investigation by the Violent Offender Task Force. But police said that they learned later that bad information led them to that house.
"It was found out that this particular address was not part of that long-term investigation," police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia III told KSTP-TV on Sunday. He told KMSP-TV that it was a "bad situation."
-snip-
Vang and his children, who range in age from 3 to 15, were shaken, Dao Vang said. "All these gunshots in the house. They don't know what's going on. Flying bullets in the house and they just cried," he said.
Garcia told KMSP that police grabbed the family's children and shielded them during the incident.
Garcia did not return repeated calls from the Star Tribune on Sunday. Questions about the shooting on Sunday night were referred to Lt. Amelia Huffman, head of the homicide unit, who also did not return calls.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Good shooting.
Nice job by the SWAT team to make sure the entire family survived.
The folks who ordered them in screwed up.
It’s also not that difficult to put a screen over the sewer outflow from the house, or block, so that anything flushed is NOT lost to the system.
No-knock raids are just like the tazer: toys that are prone to abuse by the undisciplined.
From the article: "...in a raid that ended with shots exchanged..."
Did you forget the sarcasm tag?
“Garcia told KMSP that police grabbed the family’s children and shielded them during the incident.”
Sure.
Lucky he/she wasn’t shot at!
I'm curious; how long have you had this opinion? I only wish more would adopt it so that we can end this needless erosion of civil rights. A law-abiding citizen can't even carry cash these days without fear of confiscation.
gee...that was just stupid. Let me give you a primer. How about before you do anything you let the guy/guys or gal go out for food, church, anything. Make sure the residence is clear and the CORRECT one. Then turn off electricity, water and phone. Jam cell phones and use the brand new super duper radios that the feds gave everybody or use wireless text to communicate. If you NEED to go into a house then make sure the house is not working. You ain't gonna get but one flush without water.
My point is that snatching somebody and taking them back to their homes accomplishes the same thing.
Finally if you haven't secured the area and let somebody out of the back, then your junior Barney Fife badge needs to be taken away. Same goes for over watch to look for shooters/snipers.
Planning and intel make the ambush possible. These guys are just clowns playing dress up and pretending they're Spec Ops guys.
I'm pretty much an anti-lawyer kind of guy, but if somebody did this to my family I'd make it my hobby to sue every cop, area commander, chief of police, and city council member in order to make them change their policy.
this is just plain bs. Most really good police work involves somebody using their brains and not a boot on the door.
Gillman, I am green with envy.
My town of 2500 did however, just get a super cool Dodge Police Cruiser and one of our officers has a Beretta 9MM automatic with 13-round capacity. I do think he would radiate more authority with one of those black kevlar holsters, though, dark goggles, and a flat-black kevlar helmet.
But with that 9mm, we are worried that he might not have sufficient stopping power to put down an angry moose. Now, if we had our very own SWAT tank and SWAT team, those lawless critters would think twice about charging cars and trucks out on the highway!
Our police budget is tapped, but the Public Library could be the first in the nation to have a SWAT ... waddaya think? Breaking down doors in the dark of night to reclaim overdue library books? Sure a couple of little old ladies might get capped, but we sure could put an end to that problem and increase respect for law and order around here.
Man, I’d never want to see the old ladies down at the library dressed up in ninja suits with submachine guns, chasing down scofflaws.
That’d be the end of the world as we know it.
¡Aquí el problema, amigo! Police HR is concentrating too much on Affirmative Action for Hispanics and not enough on Vietnamese-American Police Candidates!
I demand $3.5 Million to rectify (No wait, make that "study") this shocking siutation. BTW, what was Garcia's score on the cop exam... and was it in English?
When García called out to Vang, was it in English? Many Vietnamese Americans do all right in English, but too many stubbornly refuse to learn Spanish. (Racists) So many questions, so little time!
“My little town of 2500 has a twelve man SWAT team and also a tank.”
My town has 3000 people and a tank, but no SWAT team. We got some catchin’ up to do!
“If the innocent person is killed, the intruder is totally and completely responsible for the death.”
I’m sure that makes the dead innocent guy feel better. lol!
Let me know when you are ready to have a civil discussion. Until then, have a nice day.
This guy didn’t speak English and didn’t recognize police uniforms? Hmmmmmm.
*************************************
Put yourself in his shoes ... He is awakened by a yell and a bang in the middle of the night ,, an armed gang in black has swarmed into your house and is yelling words you don’t understand, you can’t see for sh*t as you just awoke and your eyes aren’t adjusted to the light conditions ,, the armed gang probably is screwing with your night vision anyway with high powered handheld lighting and with muzzle flash... In those conditions just getting to your weapon is somewhat of an accomplishment...
Way too late for that. Many innocents have been killed in this "wrong address" or "bad scumbag provided information" raids.
Yeah....they just trampled the Constitution, but caught themselves before they pissed on it, too. That would have been really bad.
By the name, they are probably originally from Vietnam (and Laos) , specifically Hmong people. They eat dogs there.
The Hmong worked with US Special forces against the Viet Cong, the NVA and the Pathet Lao. Most of 'em were left to the tender mercies of the Communists when we "cut and ran". Others made their way out over the next few decades.
Close, they, the BATF, had already arrested him for that. The federal marshals were "surveiling" his property and family because he failed to show up in court. The Marshalls shot the dog, because he had alerted to their presence, then the son shot *at* the hidden Marshals because they had shot his dog. The Marshals then killed the kid. Then a family friend shot and killed a Marshall. Finally FBI was called in, Weaver's wife was shot, by FBI agent/sniper Ron Horiuchi, while holding her assault baby, as was the friend.
On the original charge, Weaver was found not guilty because of entrapment. IIRC the "failure to appear" charge was dropped, in part because Weaver was given the wrong court date. The Taxpayers ended up paying Weaver a small fortune for "wrongful death".
And of course the FBI HRT team was rewarded with promotions and such. Some went on to participate in the Waco/Davidian bonfire.
Elisheba was 10 months old at the time, late summer of '92 so she'd be around 16 now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.