Posted on 09/06/2001 6:33:54 AM PDT by from occupied ga
Acting on a bad tip, Cobb SWAT team
bursts into home; officer's gun goes off
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Ben Gray / AJC John Bailey stands by the bullethole caused by a SWAT machine gun that accidentally discharged. Compare the faces below |
But the 3 a.m. raid -- in which police targeted the wrong man, and an officer fired his gun accidentally -- raises questions of how far police should go before bursting into people's lives.
John Bailey was relaxing in his home Sunday when he suddenly found himself handcuffed, with guns pointed at his head and police combing through his apartment.
He had just come home from a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, and the evening was winding down at 3 a.m. The 41-year-old computer programmer was having some drinks with a friend when the knock on the door came, bringing with it the "scariest moment of my life."
It had been a different evening for the Cobb County police. They had received a tip from a manager of Bailey's apartment complex. The woman said a man who rented an apartment matched a photo of a fugitive shown that evening on TV's "America's Most Wanted."
Armed with a warrant, the police SWAT team descended on his red front door. Bailey had just put some fish and chips in the oven when the knock came. There were a handful of police officers, he recalled, looking like a military unit. They had rifles, night-vision goggles, helmets.
John Bailey, left, was mistaken by a TV viewer for James Detmer, right. "They could have just looked at me through a pair of binoculars and seen I wasn't him," says an angry Bailey. |
Unfortunately, they had the wrong man.
Making matters worse, an officer's submachine gun went off inadvertently. The bullet shot through a metal closet door, through the bathroom wall, and put a hole in Bailey's deodorant stick before landing in the bathtub.
"It freaked me out," he said.
No one was injured in Sunday's early morning raid on Bailey's apartment near Vinings. Police are reviewing the incident, and it is unknown whether any disciplinary action or procedural changes will result, said police spokesman Dana Pierce.
When Cobb County police believe they know a fugitive's whereabouts, they say they must balance the desire to move fast to protect the public from a criminal, against the time needed to verify they've got the right man. If they have the right man, every minute may be critical. If they don't, they'll apologize.
Gerry Weber, a legal director with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, was critical of the raid. Police should have been more suspicious of a tip received from the airing of a television show, he said, and they should have taken greater pains to ensure the man in question was the man they wanted.
Fugitive-chasing television shows create a furor to catch the criminals they profile, he said. "People want to be famous. They want to be the one who catches the guy on 'America's Most Wanted,' " he said.
Bailey, who moved to the complex three months ago, said the police should have taken more time to obtain his name from the apartment manager. They could have checked his references on the lease. They could have checked his car tag. They could have talked to his neighbors or relatives.
"They could have just looked at me through a pair of binoculars and seen I wasn't him," Bailey said.
However, Pierce said the SWAT team acted quickly but not haphazardly. Stressing the fugitive was deemed armed and dangerous, he said, "You want to get to him as quickly as possible. What if we would have waited? A fugitive could then have injured or killed somebody else."
The phone tip came to police Saturday night, shortly after the program profiled James Detmer, a 44-year-old Kansas man who allegedly killed his father with the claw end of a hammer in Missouri. Days before, Detmer had fled after making bond on a charge that he tried to set a woman on fire with gasoline.
By 2 a.m., the police had persuaded a judge to issue a warrant. Police took a photo of the wanted man to the apartment manager, who again said she recognized the fugitive. Both Detmer and Bailey are about 40 years old, and both are about 5-foot-10 and 240 pounds.
Bailey was handcuffed, Pierce said, "to protect the officers and himself" until it could be determined he was not the fugitive.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolco said such raids are routine, and he believes the Cobb police acted appropriately in choosing to go in.
"Everybody was treated correctly with respect," he said. "If it doesn't work out, you just tell them, 'Thank you for your time.' It's worth it."
On Wednesday, Bailey said his hands were still shaking. Any knock on his door drives up his blood pressure, he said. He is taking medicine for that, as well as to help him sleep.
The bullets fired inside his home were especially unnerving.
"If anybody was in that bathroom, they would have been shot," he said.
He has hired a lawyer. Attorney Stephen P. Berne of Atlanta is demanding that an outside agency look into the raid. He noted that this is not the first time the Cobb County SWAT team has come under criticism. An independent report on a raid that resulted in the deaths of two SWAT members, was critical of the team's tactics.
On Sunday, Berne said, police created a dangerous situation at Bailey's apartment.
"He has a right to be safe in his own home."
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I wonder who has to pay for the damage to the apartment--and the big question is, will they replace his deoderant stick-- LOL!
- If even on bad person is caught this is all worth it.
- Rock concert, huh? He was probably on drugs. Should have shot him. - You don't see the hundreds of times each week that police catch and stomp (or burn alive) someone who really deserves it...
Think of any others?
I agree, BUT it's a long way between suing someone and actually getting any money in your pocket. Especially if that someone is a government agency. Further suppose he sucessfully sues and is granted a $6 million judgement. WHO IS GOING TO PAY? ANSWER: THE TAXPAYERS The moronic thugs who planned this and executed it will bear NO personal responsibility. They will incurr no personal liability of any sort. They have no incentive to restrain themselves from all or any excess
PS I'm waiting for the usual JBT sycophants and not so closet statists to come out with all sorts excuses as to why what the JBTs did was good.
What's wrong with this picture?
The judge, like most, never even reviewed any information. Each month, all warrants and the judges issuing them, should be published much like other legal records in the local papers.
For maximum protection. Yeah, sure. I think a case can be made for false advertising here.
As if there was a malfunction or it had a mind of its own. BS. The officer's finger was on the trigger and he pulled it. NEGLIGENCE at best, not accident.
Rethink.....Ten cops in ski masks with machine guns?
No wonder they wear masks. They are shameful.
There is an old saying in Texas, "One riot, One Ranger!"
Since when do we need a Swat team to serve a warrant. I agree this is getting ridiculous!
The police barked orders at him. He was handcuffed and pushed around, he said. They were talking about somebody killing his father with a hammer. "And they were treating me like I was him," said Bailey.
"If it doesn't work out, you just tell them, 'Thank you for your time.' It's worth it."
Maybe if he was the one with the bullet-ridden home who was handcuffed and shoved around for no good reason, he'd feel differently. Just another day on the job, I suppose.
To the editors and news distorters at the Atlanta paper, guns are evil things that do have minds of their own. The gun DID go off on it's own (in their minds) In their minds, no armed thug (as long as it's a government thug) can ever do any wrong; hence, it had to be the evil gun
I'm most shocked at the total nonchalance of the people quoted in this article. "Everybody was treated correctly with respect," he said. "If it doesn't work out, you just tell them, 'Thank you for your time.' It's worth it."
I'd sure hate to see this punk's definition of treating people incorrectly and with disrespect.
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