Free Republic

The Houston narcotics officer at the center of an internal police investigation — as well as an FBI civil rights probe — into a botched January raid that left two people dead has retired, his lawyer confirmed Friday. Officer Gerald Goines retired Friday afternoon while under investigation following the Jan. 28 shooting deaths of two residents during a “no-knock raid” of a Pecan Park residence in south Houston. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing more than 1,400 criminal cases that Goines worked on over the course of his 34-year career. ...Goines’ retirement came a day after Houston Police...

In 21st-century America, the most innocent of activities could have a SWAT team busting down your door. Reason profiles the Harte family, who were the victims of a SWAT home invasion after police raided their garbage cans (h/t Ben Domench). An unreliable field test falsely identified Addie Harte’s trashed teabags as marijuana, and SWAT leapt into action. The Hartes didn’t just suffer the trauma of the raid—they had to spend $25,000 just to find out why they were targeted.

A Framingham SWAT team member yesterday was placed on administrative leave for fatally shooting a 68-year-old grandfather of 12, police said, as relatives struggled to cope with the sudden and violent death. “I was shocked,” said grandson Andrew Wilkins, 23, of Springfield, who fondly recalled playing pickup basketball in Cambridge with Eurie Stamps. “I just didn’t understand what transpired. What exactly caused a situation like that to happen?” Early Tuesday morning, police raided the home at 26 Fountain St. as part of a multiweek drug investigation and shot Stamps, who was not the target of the investigation, according to police...

All officers involved were fired or quit The raid on Russell's Tire Shop had the look of a successful garden-variety drug bust. Acting on an informant's tip, police stormed the building on North Galvez Street and hauled out three suspects, a bag of heroin, a quarter-ounce of crack cocaine and more than $4,000 in cash. Police say they found the evidence in plain sight. But 11 months after the August 2002 bust, prosecutors dropped the charges. And this June, attorneys for the city offered the men accused of dealing the drugs $85,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged the four...

LIMA, Ohio – The death of Tarika Wilson during a drug raid has left tensions here simmering between minorities and police. Wilson, 26, was fatally shot and her 1-year-old son was wounded when SWAT officers burst into her home looking for her boyfriend. Black clergy leaders are nervously waiting for investigators to decide whether to charge the veteran officer who fired the fatal shots. The officer is white, the victims black. “This was ready to blow,” said Daniel Hughes, one of several pastors who has been preaching patience while residents demand more answers about the shooting. “It still could go...

ATLANTA - Two police officers pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter and other charges in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid at her home last fall. Officer J.R. Smith, who also agreed to resign from the police department, told a state judge that he regretted what had happened. "I'm sorry," the 35-year-old said, his voice barely audible. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation, making false statements and perjury, which was based on untrue claims in a no-knock warrant obtained to enter Kathryn Johnston's home on Nov. 21. Former Officer Gregg Junnier,...

Pieces of identification with different names were found in a West End apartment after a man with possible terrorist links plunged to his death Saturday when he tried to jump from his balcony to escape a drug raid. Vancouver police spokeswoman Constable Sarah Bloor said the man, who was the sole resident in the seventh-floor Burnaby Street apartment, had a number of IDs with different names. Neither Vancouver police nor the RCMP would confirm the man's identity, but based on a B.C. driver's licence, Vancouver coroner Nic Snyckers identified him Wednesday as Mohammad Saleh Aramesh, with a birth date of...

<p>HOWELL -- The unsuccessful May 20 drug raid of a Howell family's home nearly cost the Livingston and Washtenaw Narcotic Enforcement Team (LAWNET) the support of its only municipal member, the city of Howell.</p> <p>City Council debated Monday whether to sign a new two-year agreement with LAWNET, the county's only drug-fighting task force. Council members said they were concerned about possible abuse of the state's new anti-terrorism laws by LAWNET officers during and after the raid.</p>