Posted on 12/11/2008 3:52:51 AM PST by from occupied ga
Gwinnett County police said they accidentally broke down the door to the wrong house before going to the correct house and arresting a man on drug charges.
Gwinnett County police investigators intended to execute a no-knock search warrant at a home on Valley Spring Drive in Lawrenceville Wednesday morning. Police said the lead investigator mistakenly pointed out a home to the officers and once officers entered the home they realized they were in the wrong house.
VIDEO: Gwinnett County Police Break Down Door To Wrong House
The homeowner of the incorrectly targeted house told Channel 2 that having guns pointed at him was something he would never forget.
"(They) put my life, daughter’s life, my lady’s life in danger," said homeowner John Lewis.
Lewis said Gwinnett County investigators burst through his front door and ordered him and his girlfriend to the floor at gunpoint.
“It’s an experience to have one gun draw on you. It’s something else to have 15, 16 of them,” said Lewis.
Lewis said his 3-month-old baby saw the whole thing. “She was the calmest one,” said Lewis.
Police said once they realized their mistake the search was ceased and the homeowners were released. Police said the front door to the home was damaged during the process.
Fifteen minutes after bursting into Lewis' home, officers served a search warrant at the correct home on Valley Spring Drive. Police said the warrant was served after a three-month drug investigation.
Police arrested Efrain Pedruza, 31, and he was taken to the Gwinnett County Detention Center. Police said they found $24,000 in cash in the home.
Officials said the investigation is continuing. Police are paying for the repairs to Lewis' door.
Gwinnett County, Lawrenceville Ga northeast of Atlanta about 30 miles.
In our area, we have had reported incidents of home invaders dressing in black jumpsuits, wearing black balacalavas, and screaming "Police" as they enter a home for their criminal purposes. After ransacking the home for valuables, the occupants are often abused and women have sometimes been sexually assaulted.
Therefore, since there is NO criminal activity taking place in my home, I guess we should assume that anyone breaking down the door and yelling "Police!" is just Officer Friendly making another one of those simple mistakes that ordinary folks make everyday on their jobs, and roll over and grab the ankles. /s
If they want to enter my house, simply obtain a legal warrant, knock on my door and show me said warrant, and be allowed to do whatever the warrant specifies without resistance of any kind.
But, besides that being too simple, it also makes it harder to justify the budget for all of the military hardware and "training" that it takes to terrorize and subdue the citizens.
That is the natural reaction, but you'd end up like the 92 year old woman the Atlanta police shot when they broke into her house by mistake.
Don't they teach "reading addresses 101" in police academy any more?
Maybe they should start slower: "This is a 1. It is commonly recognized as the lowest single integer symbol. This is a 2. This equates to a pair of 1 units. Please remember that numbers are sequential. Just because a houses address may have the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in it, the order they appear is very important. If you are ordered to raid a house on 321 Park St, but instead raid the house at 123 Park St, then you've hit the wrong house. Does everyone understand this? No? Sgt. Jenkins... you have a question?"
Yes. To pretty much all of your strawmen. Law enforcement should be held to a much higher standard as there are INNOCENT lives at risk every time they f*ck up like this.
Some of these guys are affirmative action - first grade dropouts.
This is why you armor your house and make it thug (all kinds of thug) resistant. Keeps out burglars, keeps out wrong-house raids, keeps out people who have no warrant.
Clever command, and artful influence of the language is always a joy to behold.
Have you found the argument you are trolling for?
What is it that you lick?
Isn't she the one that they planted drugs on after the shooting in an attempt to justify their mistake?
Apparently, they occasionally do, and don't even get a slap on the wrist at the end of it all:
In January 2007, a SWAT team in Lima, Ohio, shot and killed Tarika Wilson, a 26-year-old mother, during a drug raid at the home of her boyfriend, Anthony Terry. When the unarmed Wilson was shot, she was kneeling on the ground, complying with police orders. She was holding her 1-year-old son, Sincere, who was also shot, losing his left hand. A subsequent investigation revealed that Officer Joseph Chavalia heard another officer shooting Terry’s two dogs, mistook the noise for hostile gunfire, panicked, and fired blindly into the room where Wilson was kneeling. Chavalia was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but acquitted.
You would think after a three month investigation that the cops would get the right house.
*************
Absolutely...
Not giving the cops a pass here - but - looks like all the houses on that road were newly built - I could understand a bit...mistakes were definitely made - extreme sloppiness.
AS I said in post 54. Everyone involved should be aware of all information on the warrant.Everyone involved should assess any and all possible safety factors. Some simple questions to ask yourself before doing a task.1. What am I about to do? A.Read the warrant, be sure of address. 2. Is everyone involved in agreement? A.Does anyone have any questions. 3. What could go wrong?A. Are we sure we got the right guy/address.4. Am I willing to sacrifice my life to serve this warrant.A.Is there a safer way to apprehend this guy and still get a conviction. And #5.What will my wife and kids do if I don’t come home at the end of my shift.A. Maybe we should think this through a little more.
"Just following orders" didn't fly in Nuremberg, why should it fly here? The police engaging in a raid have some basic knowledge of what they're looking for and why, and what they might face when they get there - that's just basic tactics - and you would think they'd know the address as part of that basic pre-raid information, rather than just charging in whatever direction the lead investigator points.
Cops are not soldiers, they're civilians.
A Denver Post investigation found that in 80 percent of no-knock raids conducted in Denver in 1999, police assertions that there would be weapons in the targeted home turned out to be wrong. A separate investigation by the Rocky Mountain News found that of the 146 no-knock warrants served in Denver in 1999, just 49 resulted in criminal charges, and only two resulted in prison time. Media investigations produced similar results after high-profile mistaken raids in New York City in 2003, in Atlanta in 2007, and in Orlando and Palm Beach, Florida, in 1998. When the results of the Denver investigation were revealed, former prosecutor Craig Silverman said, “When you have that violent intrusion on people’s homes with so little results, you have to ask why.”
Lima police apparently aren’t as concerned. When told of the Lima News investigation, police spokesman Kevin Martin said, “That means 68 percent of the time, we’re getting guns or drugs off the street. We’re not looking at it as a win-loss record like a football team does.”
“I thought police were given IQ tests”
Oh, they are - to screen out those who may be too intelligent. You wouldn’t want cops who might question why they’re kicking in people’s doors so they can make an arrest before someone might flush some evidence down a toilet.
I wonder how much they really found.
Unfortunately, it happens more than occasionally. No one compiles records of these “mistakes”, but if they did you would find that it is an “epidemic of horror” I believe that is why they don’t keep track of their mistakes. I believe that when they make a mistake like this, the police should be charged with a crime because that is what it is, a crime, plain and simple. It might actually get them to stop making these mistakes if they knew they would suffer repercussions. Right now, nothing happens to these criminals so they just keep doing it.
Actually they do.
Sometimes they murder people on purpose in order to steal their land.
L
Lawrenceville, Ga. Atlanta suburb.
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