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Twenty-three year old man shot dead by police in a marijuana raid
Dayton Daily News ^ | 10/01/02 | Cathy Mong

Posted on 10/01/2002 7:16:59 AM PDT by Phantom Lord

Dozens protest Preble County police shooting

Slain man’s roommates say he was unarmed

EATON | Preble County law-enforcement officials declined to talk publicly Monday as they turned information about Friday's fatal shooting by a police officer of a 23-year-old man over to detectives from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

Montgomery County investigators, called in by Preble County Sheriff Tom Hayes, also said they would not talk about their review of the shooting by a member of a Preble County's emergency services group — officers from a number of police departments who are trained to handle drownings and hostage and other situations.

However, it was anything but quiet outside the Preble County Courthouse, where dozens of friends and relatives picketed and said that police were covering up what happened to Clayton Jacob Helriggle, 23, of 1282 Ohio 503 South.

The protesters disputed police claims that Helriggle had a gun when he descended a stairwell and was shot by a Lewisburg police officer, whose identity has not been released. Friends and relatives on Monday carried blue plastic cups similar to the one they said Helriggle had in his hand Friday night.

Among the protesters were four of Helriggle's roommates, three of whom said they were inside the brick farmhouse when police stormed the house to serve a warrant to search for narcotics.

Maj. Wayne Simpson of the Preble County Sheriff's Office declined to discuss information about what happened Friday night and said a report on the shooting of the Preble County man had not been completed. Preble County Prosecutor Rebecca Ferguson said she sealed the search warrant after the shooting, and had no comment regarding the investigation.

"They're a professional group of officers, that's what their job is, and I'm not going to second-guess them. Whatever (Montgomery County officials) come up with, they come up with," Ferguson said.

Friends called Helriggle "peaceful and nonviolent," but police said the 1997 Twin Valley South High School graduate held a 9 mm handgun, not a blue cup, in his right hand when he descended the dimly lighted stairs. Roommates said Helriggle owned a 9 mm gun, but that it was upstairs when police entered their house.

"It's like we were armed, hardened criminals waiting inside to take them on," said Wes Bradley, 26, who lived in the bottom of the six-bedroom farmhouse with his girlfriend, 22-year-old Tasha Webster.

Bradley said he and Webster were near the kitchen next to the stairs, when officers "broke through the back door with battering rams and started throwing in flash grenades three at a time, to blind us."

The officers wore full body armor and carried shields, he said.

Another roommate, Ian Albert, said he had returned home from the grocery store with Chris Elmore, 24, who remained outside while Albert ran into the house.

"We saw at least two paddy wagon-type vehicles, like a SWAT bus," Elmore said. "About 30 officers stormed out of the woods" surrounding the farmhouse. "They'd cut the barbed wire, and you could see a staging area, like where 25 to 30 uniformed cops had been lying down and slithered along the grass."

Officers ordered Elmore to get on the ground, and he said he heard three pops, which he said could have been the flash grenades and gunshot.

"I yelled 'Nobody's armed,' and they told me, 'Shut up, shut up.' ”

Elmore described the action "like a movie, in slow motion."

Inside, Albert said, the police threw him against the staircase, "with my head on the second step up. I wanted to yell at Clay, but I looked up and saw him, rounding the stairway, and he had this look on his face, like, 'What's going on?' and the cops yelled, 'Get down' and then 'boom.' ”

Albert, who completed four months of Navy Seal training, said he reached up for Helriggle, "and I tried to apply pressure," he said, placing his left palm on his right chest, where Helriggle was struck by the gunshot.

"He died in my arms," he said. "It took about two minutes."

Albert said he was placed in a sheriff's car, and Helriggle's parents arrived.

"They saw me, drenched in Clay's blood, and they ask me, 'Is he all right?' and I just shook my head. The cops are smoking and joking, high-fiving each other. Wow, I think, they took down a farm of unarmed hippies.

"If they would have come to the door and said, 'Give us your dope, hippies,' we'd have gotten about a $100 ticket."

Police said they confiscated a small amount of marijuana, pills, drug paraphernalia and quantities of packaging items used in the distribution of marijuana.

The four roommates said they smoke marijuana from time to time and that they had marijuana pipes in the house. Bradley said he had a prescription for Fiorocet, a codeinelike painkiller, for a bad knee. They said the packaging police referred to was a box of plastic sandwich bags.

Webster said there was nothing in the house "that a good divorce lawyer couldn't have gotten us out on a misdemeanor," and said an old shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle found there were used for hunting.

"We target-practiced outside all the time, shot at bales of hay, jugs, that sort of thing," Webster said.

Bradley and Webster said Helriggle took a nap around 5 p.m. and had made plans to meet his girlfriend later.

"I'm not sure if he woke up from the bashing on the door or what," Bradley said.

All four said they were not read their rights or told what charges were filed against them. They were released from the Preble County Jail around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. No criminal charges have been filed.

Nancy Fahrenholz, the daughter of Everett "Bill" Fahrenholz, an attorney and former country prosecutor, hugged Bradley on Monday at the courthouse. Helriggle and five roommates rented the house from the Fahrenholzes.

"I'm so sorry," said Fahrenholz, a Rhode Island resident in the area to finish up the estate of her father, Bill Fahrenholz, who died a month ago.

"(Dad) would have been furious at this," she said. "We're all very distressed."

She said Helriggle "was a really nice guy," and that her family was pleased with the five young people's work on rehabilitating the farmhouse.

Helriggle's 77-year-old grandfather, Donald, a Miamisburg resident and Ohio Bell retiree, said his grandson rented the farmhouse "so they could play their instruments, listen to their music and drink a little beer. . . . They just wanted to be doing what 23-year-olds do."


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: 762mmbuzz; anotherwodsuccess; blindcops; bspressrelease; c4onthedoor; choiceobeyorpay; dontbogartthatmp5; doperbitesdust; doperwhinefest; druggestapo; druggiemeetdarwin; drugsbaddopersworse; ernestisafool; genepoolcleaner; governmentkilling; gubmintextremists; hippiedoperjustice; jackbootedthug; liberdopiansagain; libertarians; mj; obeythelaworpay; onemanwaco; osaycanyouthc; police; potsmokingnerd; shooting; spiketraps; sssssssmokin; statistgoonsalert; swat; thelawisthelaw; theweedsofstupidity; tookbongtogunfite; wackyterbacky; whineyhineydrugies; wod; wodcirclejerk; wodlist
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Another incident that will make the drug warriors swell with pride.
1 posted on 10/01/2002 7:16:59 AM PDT by Phantom Lord
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To: Phantom Lord
Here we go ..................
2 posted on 10/01/2002 7:18:27 AM PDT by Skooz
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To: *Wod_list; *libertarians
Fighting the Drug War one dead pot smokier at a time. But despite the hardships of the fighting trenches, there is at least some time for levity ... with the cops high-fiving one another for their latest kill.
3 posted on 10/01/2002 7:20:32 AM PDT by coloradan
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To: Phantom Lord
quantities of packaging items used in the distribution of marijuana.

AHA!

Sad story. About 10 years ago that could have been me. Big old house full of hippies coming and going. Used to be you hang out with dogs, you get fleas. Now you might just get killed.

4 posted on 10/01/2002 7:21:59 AM PDT by Huck
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To: Phantom Lord
And the slime and slimette along with their band of thugs are atill free to make millions. Isn't our injustice system wonderful?
5 posted on 10/01/2002 7:23:08 AM PDT by poet
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To: coloradan
I heard the cops flew Ted Nugent in for a concert after the raid.

Can you prove it isn't true?

6 posted on 10/01/2002 7:23:09 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: Phantom Lord
Meanwhile, in a halfway house in Florida, hardened cokehead and recidivist scofflaw Noelle Bush calls for more bon-bons as she paints her nails red, white, and blue.
7 posted on 10/01/2002 7:23:37 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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To: Phantom Lord
The cops are smoking and joking, high-fiving each other.

A little bit of hypocrisy there for you ... while the cops murder someone for being involved with drugs, they themselves flaunt their own addicition, which by the way kills a lot more people each year than pot does - or all illegal drugs combined for that matter.

And the War On (some) Drugs continues.

8 posted on 10/01/2002 7:23:41 AM PDT by coloradan
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To: Phantom Lord
Lots of thoughts in my head.....wonder if Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will show any interest in this case. Oh yeah, hippies are white. Who cares.
9 posted on 10/01/2002 7:23:58 AM PDT by Huck
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10 posted on 10/01/2002 7:27:03 AM PDT by William McKinley
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To: Huck
Hey Dane, Curry!! You guys can have a smoke and high-five each other! Isn't it a shame when rascally totalitarians shoot and kill folks? Dang.
11 posted on 10/01/2002 7:29:03 AM PDT by corkoman
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To: Phantom Lord
"They said the packaging police referred to was a box of plastic
sandwich bags."

How much money do we spend a year so these "cops" can run their "war on drugs"? Seems like a lot to stop a couple of kids from smoking a little pot. And those sandwich bags, oh I mean "packaging material", really is the smoking gun for this raid. Everyone knows it's highly illegal to have zip-lock bags in your pad. Well done "no education needed" police officers. Sure am glad they're taking 35% of my pay to fund stuff like this. Unbelievable.....
12 posted on 10/01/2002 7:30:27 AM PDT by walkingdead
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To: Phantom Lord
Hey, it's the law. If the law says run nig***s out of town, the cops do it. If the law says booze is illegal, the cops do it, if tomorrow booze is legal, they do it. If the law says round up the Jews, they do it.

Cops have given up their responsibility to think and weigh their actions in ethical and moral values. Blind obedience defines one's self as a slave, or worse. But what are they going to do, quit? Where would the average cop make the money they make without having to bust hump or hustle?

< insert sound of heel click, here >
13 posted on 10/01/2002 7:33:06 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: walkingdead
By the way, anyone know why my quotation marks are coming in as question marks? weird...
14 posted on 10/01/2002 7:33:29 AM PDT by walkingdead
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To: corkoman
It is an interesting and dangerous convergence of authoritarian policies. The national predisposition against guns and drugs combine to create a situation where folks not personally affected really don't care if someone in these circumstances gets killed. It's a mulligan. The thought process probably goes something like this: I don't possess marijuana. I don't possess guns. It doesn't affect me. Wild west type stuff, brought to high tech sophistication.
15 posted on 10/01/2002 7:34:03 AM PDT by Huck
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To: corkoman; Dane; Kevin Curry; Destructor; A CA Guy
Why don't you ask them, Corkoman? I'll ping some of the regulars, too.

16 posted on 10/01/2002 7:34:16 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
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To: Phantom Lord
What if the police are telling the truth? That they raided the house, someone had a gun in their own home, so they shot him. It's unjustified homicide either way. Could they not anticipate that someone might have a gun in their own home in southern Ohio? It's not like the guy was shooting at the cops.
17 posted on 10/01/2002 7:34:50 AM PDT by Liberty Al
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To: Huck
The article says they found a "small amount" of MJ. Probably enough for a joint. I bet I have more sandwhich bags in my house than these guys did. I buy them at Sams!

I would probably be tried as a top level distributor or head of a cartel if they based it on the number of plastic bags I have.

18 posted on 10/01/2002 7:38:11 AM PDT by Phantom Lord
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To: Phantom Lord
There is no reason why the police need to storm a house in the middle of the night, increasing the likelyhood that something like this will happen.

What, the man never walks out of his house, gets in his car and goes down to the local convenicence store? Of course he does, most likely every day. The police had many opportunities to apprehend this man peacefully.

They choose instead to bust in doors.

Too many have been killed like this. The practice needs to be stopped unless it can be shown that it is the safest way to apprehend someone. That will rarely be shown to be the case.

Reno raid on Waco; Police raid on this house: Its the same, only on a smaller scale.
19 posted on 10/01/2002 7:42:18 AM PDT by BJungNan
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To: Huck
Now you might just get killed.

The penalty for lying down with dogs is now death.

20 posted on 10/01/2002 7:44:02 AM PDT by Protagoras
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