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Bad information leads police to wrong house; bullets fly
Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | December 16, 2007 | Patrick Kennedy

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 ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: badcopnodonut; banglist; donttasemebro; donutwatch; swat
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To: clamper1797; Travis McGee; Squantos; Joe Brower

Agreed. Routine warrants should be served during daylight hours after knocking. So what if they flush anything? Only drugs can be flushed and they leave residue. If the evidence is gone, the perps can explain it to their suppliers. And it’s hard to flush stolen car parts.

Any other types of raids should be for extreme emergencies only (hostage rescue, for example).


21 posted on 12/17/2007 8:51:57 AM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

They were just killing time between Minnesota Vikings’ arrests.....

;-)


22 posted on 12/17/2007 8:53:51 AM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo (Merry Christmas!)
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To: Ken H
Every one horse town with a two bit sheriff has a paramilitary enforcement organization within it called a S W A T team. It is a constitutional violation on so many different fronts it would take the rest of the day for a list to be compiled. No Knock entry into private property (the primary use of such forces) should be in the top ten and maybe even number one.
23 posted on 12/17/2007 8:55:41 AM PST by kublia khan (Absolute war brings total victory)
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To: Ken H
Had one of these in Georgia about this time last year...

Elderly woman killed in her own home with a no-knock warrant.

Bad info.... funky, unreliable "informant" under duress to give the "elite" drug squad something they sould use...ASAP...

Let's get those arrest numbers back up there!

Gestapo tactics... IMHO
"Veeee hafff to seee ze papers...
"Vee shall come and go as veee please..."

You dare to shootback...
Vee vill keel ze dog...
Veee vill strip-search your zleeping wife...
Vee vill take your children away....

You vill cooperate.... OR ELSE!!...
Veee might haff to consider ze use of force!

Zank you for your cooperation...

4th Amendment???
We don't need to steeenkin' 4th amendment...

24 posted on 12/17/2007 8:55:53 AM PST by Wings-n-Wind (The main things are the plain things!)
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To: Ken H

with shots exchanged between police — who were struck by bullets —

Only after you read the entire article do you find out the “bullets” the cops were struck with were actually pellets likely fired from a 12 Ga.

Kinda like calling a chinese SKS an AK-47. I hate sloppy/inaccurate reporting.


25 posted on 12/17/2007 8:56:56 AM PST by READINABLUESTATE ("life is dangerous")
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To: Dick Vomer
Hooked on SWAT (FR thread from 2001)

Fueled With Drug Enforcement Money, Military-Style Police Teams Are Exploding In The Backwoods Of Wisconsin

-snip-

Wendy Olveda, five months pregnant, was on the computer preparing lessons for the fifth-grade class she teaches at Markesan Elementary School. Jesus, her husband, was in the bedroom reading, and their 3-year-old daughter, Zena, was passing the time quietly on a couch.

Suddenly the door burst open and several armed men in black uniforms burst into the home. Within seconds Wendy and her husband, Jesus, were thrown roughly face down to the floor and ordered to put their hands behind their heads.

26 posted on 12/17/2007 8:57:22 AM PST by Ken H
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To: Ken H

these SWAT teams are really getting out of control.


27 posted on 12/17/2007 8:57:23 AM PST by AIM-54
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To: dragnet2
This sh*t is just over the top and is occurring at a disturbing frequency.

It's just my paranoid opinion that the police are doing these SWAT raids NOT as a way to bust drug dealers ... BUT rather are using them as a show of force for the citizenry. I believe it's a veiled threat to those who may think that the tree of liberty may need a little watering ...

28 posted on 12/17/2007 8:59:44 AM PST by clamper1797 (Fred Thompson - Duncan Hunter for POTUS and Vice Potus in either order)
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To: Ken H

I had written a post about how incompetent the SWAT team is but then I had a second thought. Maybe that the homeowner didn’t get shot tells how well trained the SWAT team is.

Mistakes happen in every line of work. The SWAT team stopped, in the heat of the action, before something really bad happened. I applaud them.


29 posted on 12/17/2007 8:59:51 AM PST by live+let_live
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To: saganite

Wonder if they’ll charge the guy with police assault?

They are saying on the radio here that the man has been questioned and released. His family is considering a legal action.


30 posted on 12/17/2007 9:00:08 AM PST by READINABLUESTATE ("life is dangerous")
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To: Ken H
2 to 1 odds that the family dog got murdered.

End the failed war on some drugs. It's not worth kicking in doors to make sure someone isn't smoking a plant.
31 posted on 12/17/2007 9:00:09 AM PST by mysterio
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

My Grandfather came to America as a youth and learned to speak English without an accent and only spoke English in his home so my mother only new his original language minimally....his sister a few years older never ever learned the language.

Go figure, but dont assume that being here 20 years is a guarantee of language proficiency.


32 posted on 12/17/2007 9:01:15 AM PST by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Heinlein "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas of Sparta)
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To: clamper1797

Time to put these dogs on a leash.

I’m all FOR having a SWAT team, or whatever they call them now, but when they get bad intel on the perps and kick in the wrong guy innocent people die, including cops.

If someone came crashing in MY house in the middle of the night, I’ll probably go down fighting, since I don’t keep kevlar in the bedroom usually, but I damned sure have an arsenal that will take down someone wearing it....

Sorry, police should NOT be kicking in doors like that, unless it is a KNOWN hostage situation or something worse. When you go to an address in the middle of the night (or whenever) and you’re trying to surprise the occupants by terrorizing them into submission, then you’re cruising for a bruising.


33 posted on 12/17/2007 9:02:35 AM PST by Rick.Donaldson (http://www.transasianaxis.com - Visit for lastest on DPRK/Russia/China/Etc --Fred Thompson for Prez.)
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To: Dick Vomer
How come they don't do this to the MS-13, Crips, Blood, LK's or Mexican Mafia?

My thoughts exactly. And why is it they can't seal off the border?

34 posted on 12/17/2007 9:03:12 AM PST by RSmithOpt (Liberalism: Highway to Hell)
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To: Ken H

sickening..


35 posted on 12/17/2007 9:05:22 AM PST by Smogger (It's the WOT Stupid)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

“We won’t prosecute you, if you promise not to sue us...”

Or, something like that......

And I’d be saying, “F*** You. I’m suing, go ahead and arrest me for defending my family against an unknown intrusion. ANYONE can SHOUT ‘POLICE!’ can’t they moron!”

Then I’d sue them for false arrest, endangerment, shooting my dog and kicking my door in. Good grief, this is BS. SWAT teams should be held in reserve for KNOWN SITUATIONS that can’t be handled by regular law enforcement personnel. Once they have the goods on someone and an arrest goes wrong, that’s when SWAT is supposed to come in. That was their ORIGINAL purpose, and they need to keep them back until then.

SWAT belongs at hostage situations and KNOWN bad guys being holed up after an LE contact, not kicking in doors in the middle of the night.


36 posted on 12/17/2007 9:06:15 AM PST by Rick.Donaldson (http://www.transasianaxis.com - Visit for lastest on DPRK/Russia/China/Etc --Fred Thompson for Prez.)
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To: Ken H
D'OH Alert

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

37 posted on 12/17/2007 9:07:45 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Ken H
Like the man in Mississippi this one will most likely be in jail for life. It must be total stupidity for a SWAT team to raid a house when they have not even look to see if it is the correct house or if the person who turned them on to this house was a liar.

Just like the Nazi and Communist. They should be fired immediately. And brought to court for felon breaking and entering.

38 posted on 12/17/2007 9:07:58 AM PST by YOUGOTIT (The Greatest Threat to our Security is the US Senate)
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To: clamper1797
"This Gestapo crap needs to end before some innocent person is killed ..."

If memory serves, that has already happened several times. The most egregious was the Weaver family (Ruby Ridge) when the feds raided to arrest him for "selling a sawed-off shotgun". As I recall, his wife, son, and baby were killed.

39 posted on 12/17/2007 9:09:27 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel-NRA)
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To: live+let_live
Maybe that the homeowner didn't get shot tells how well trained the SWAT team is.

From the article: "...in a raid that ended with shots exchanged..."

What do you think these well trained officers were shooting at?

40 posted on 12/17/2007 9:09:59 AM PST by Ken H
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