There was an indecent a few months back in my home town where a high school girl was coming home and did this very thing and got a much harder time from the Deputie for doing it.
The problem is just that…no knock warrants. Some of them call for it, but the vast majority do not.
There are numerous cases of LEOs getting injured or killed serving them(sometimes by criminals who immediately surrender upon realizing it was police and not rival gangs) and sometimes by law abiding citizens. I’m not taking up for the ones with cocaine or meth or whatever…I feel there needs to be more thought given to the best way to arrest these people.
The Lewis Cauthorne Raid
November 19, 2002—MD
On January 7, 2003, prosecutors in Baltimore announce they will not press charges against Lewis S. Cauthorne for firing a .45-caliber handgun at police who broke down his door during a no-knock raid in November 2002.
Cauthorne, at home with his mother, girlfriend, and three year-old daughter at the time of the raid, heard screaming when police broke open the door to his home and began searching for drugs. The raiding officers never identified themselves.
Prosecutors later determined that Cauthorne, who had no arrest record and whose father had been robbed and killed as a cab driver, had reason to believe his life was in danger when he fired and wounded three of the raiding police officers. Police fired back, but no one inside the home was hit.
Police were acting on a tip from a confidential informant, and claim to have found six bags with traces of marijuana, empty vials, a razor with cocaine residue, and two scales in Cauthorne’s home. But the ensuing investigation found peculiarities with the evidence that precluded Cauthorne from being charged even with a misdemeanor. For example, there was no record of where exactly in the home the drugs were found, and crime lab technicians were told by police not to photograph the evidence.
The officers who conducted the raid were also unavailable for interviews from investigators until days or weeks after the raid took place. Though never charged, Cauthorne served more than six weeks in jail before the charges against him were dismissed.
Source::
Allison Klein and Del Quentin Wilber, “Prosecutor to drop charges in shooting of four officers,” Baltimore Sun, January 7, 2003.
Officer Ron Jones
December 26, 2001—MS
On December 26, 2001, police in Prentiss, Mississippi serve search warrants on two apartments in a yellow duplex. One apartment is occupied by Jamie Smith, named in the warrant as a “known drug dealer.” The other is occupied by Cory Maye, who has no criminal record, and isn’t named in the warrants.
At the time of the raid, Maye is asleep with his 18-month old daughter. After trying and failing to kick down the front door, police move to the back, and break down the door to Maye’s bedroom. Maye is lying in the dark with his daughter, clutching a handgun. According to his trial testimony, he is unaware that the men breaking into his home are the police.
Officer Ron Jones is the first police officer to enter. Maye fires three times, striking Jones once. Maye’s bullet hit Jones in the abdomen, just below his bulletproof vest. Jones dies a short time later. Police find only traces of marijuana in Maye’s apartment, after first telling reporters they’d found no drugs at all.
Officer Jones was the only officer who conducted the investigation leading up to the raid, and apparently kept no notes of his investigation. According to the district attorney and prosecutor in the Maye case, all evidence of the investigation leading to the raid on Maye’s home “died with Officer Jones,” who is also the son of the Prentiss police chief.
In January 2004, Cory Maye was convicted of capital murder for the death of Jones, and sentenced to die by lethal injection.
Sources:
Antoinette Konz, “Jury sentences man to die,” Hattiesburg American, January 24, 2004, p. A1.
“Source’s tip leading to drug raid results in officer’s death,” Baton Rouge Advocate, December 31, 2001, p. B2.
Antoinette Konz, “Defendant says he didn’t know man he shot was officer,” Hattiesburg American, January 23, 2004, p. A1.
Jimmie Gates, “Young officer shot dead on drug raid called hero,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, December 21, 2001.
Research and interviews conducted by Radley Balko.
Deputy Newt Ellenbarger – the Mary Lou Coonfield Raid
August 30, 1996—OK
In August 1996, Tulsa police raid the home of 68-year-old Mary Lou Coonfield on a drug warrant. Coonfield awakes to find a man in black standing in her bedroom, holding a gun. She grabs a .22-caliber pistol and fires, wounding Tulsa County Deputy Sheriff Newt Ellenbarger.
The warrant for the raid on Coonfield’s home would later be thrown out, ruled in both 1996 and 1997 to be illegal. In 1999, a jury acquitted Coonfield of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and feloniously pointing a weapon, due to Oklahoma’s “Make My Day” law, which states that “an occupant of a house is justified in using physical force, including deadly force, against another person who has unlawfully entered the house if the occupant reasonably believes that the other person might use any physical force, no matter how slight, against any occupant of the house.”
Coonfield, who’s both hard of hearing and has poor eyesight, says she didn’t hear police announce themselves before entering, and thought she was being robbed.
Sources:
“Woman cleared in shooting of deputy,” Asssociated Press, January 15, 1999.
Bill Braun, “Woman cleared in deputy shooting,” Tulsa World, January 15, 1999.
Bog Doucette, “Agent testifies about drug raid,” Oklahoman, January 16, 2004.
Officer Tony Patterson
October 12, 1995—KS
On October 12, 1995, police in Topeka, Kansas conduct a 2:50 a.m. raid on the home of college student Stephen Shively, whom they suspect of dealing marijuana.
After police have battered down an outer door, Shively awakes as officers were working to break down the door to his apartment. Shively first calls 911 to report what he thinks is a burglary of his home, then grabs a gun and fires at the figures he sees through a crack in the paneling around his door. His bullet strikes and kills Officer Tony Patterson.
Prosecutors would later press murder charges against Shively, claiming that he intentionally engaged in a gun battle with police to protect the 12 ounces of marijuana he had in his home. A jury acquitted Shively of murder, but convicted him of aggravated assault and charges related to the drugs found in his possession. The judge sentenced him to 3 1/2 years in prison, taking care to note that Shively didn’t fit the description of “a drug lord with horns and fangs.”
In 1998, a judge released Shively after he had served two years and seven months of sentence. And in 1999, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that the search warrant officers used to raid Shively’s apartment was illegal. “Regrettably, the loss of an officer’s life might have been prevented if the affidavit had been candid and not designed to mislead the magistrate into issuing the search warrant,” the court wrote.
The Topeka Police Department awarded six officers Medals of Merit for their actions the night of the Shively raid.
Sources:
Tim Carpenter, “Broken Hearts, Broken Lives,” Topeka Capital-Journal, October 9, 2005.
Officer Leslie I. Early
November 5, 1993—TX
In November 1993, police in Houston, Texas conduct a pre-dawn no-knock raid on the home of 21-year-old Edward John Benavides. As Officer Leslie I. Early enters the room where Benavides is sleeping, Benavides awakes, grabs his gun, points it at the door, and fires. Early is struck and killed. Upon realizing the raiders are police, Benavides immediately surrenders himself.
A subsequent investigative report by the Houston Chronicle found significant problems with the police investigation and execution of the raid, not least of which was the fact that Benavides didn’t know it was police officers who were invading his home until after he’d fired. One officer told the paper, “I think the Task Force may have had more to do with getting [Officer Early] killed than the kid [Benavides] did.” Police would not tell the paper the identity of the informant whose tip led to the raid, nor would they say whether or how much the informant was paid. Police found some weapons and $290,000 in cash in Benavides’ home, but no drugs.
In 1994, a jury convicted Benavides of murder, and sentenced him to life in prison. He wasn’t convicted of capital murder and was spared the death penalty because, according to the Houston Chronicle, “jurors had some doubt he knew pre-dawn raiders were police.”
Source:
Jennifer Liebrum, “Life imprisonment for convicted killer; Man found guilty in death of officer,” Houston Chronicle, September 23, 1994, p. A34.
S.K. Bardwell, “New evidence surfaces in flawed SWAT drug raid,” Houston Chronicle, June 5, 1994, p. A1.
And on and on…
I guess my thinking is
the chance of a bad guy kicking in my door is more than the cops 
chances are bad guys in cop outfits might even be more than the cops ?
Police now believe that the boy’s grandfather can lead them to the boy but the grandfather was last seen in Memphis or Southaven, Mississippi. Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer. 51, of Las Vegas is believed to be involved in drug dealing with Mexican nationals and the boy’s kidnapping was a “message” Tinnemeyer has not been seen since May and has been reported as missing since September 11. Police say that he was driving a white Dodge pick-up truck with Mississippi license tag #KAG 251.
Police say that Tinnemeyer possibly could have moved to Memphis months ago. He also owns a 30 ft. motor home, which is a 2006 Valencia with Nevada plates 665 VFN. The motor home is a beige color. Police say Tinnemeyer is not wanted at this time but they would like to talk to him because they think he knows who kidnapped little Cole since he owes them money.
Anyone seeing Tinnemeye’s truck please call your local police immediately or you can call the Las Vegas Police Department at 702-828-3111.
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-world-latinamerica/20081017/LT.Mexico.US.Drugs/
MEXICO CITY — U.S. drug czar John Walters said Friday that Mexico’s drug cartels are crossing the border to kidnap and kill inside the United States, and promised that an anti-drug aid package to help Mexico to fight the gangs will be ready soon.
Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, was in Mexico for two days to discuss efforts with local officials to stem killings, weapons trafficking and money laundering by Mexican cartels and their U.S. associates.
“Some of these groups not only engage in crime and violence not only in Mexico and along the border, but they come across and kidnap, murder and carry out assassinations,” Walters told reporters. “These groups do not respect the border.”
Walters said some of the US$400 million in U.S. drug aid approved for Mexico earlier this year under the Merida Initiative could be ready in a matter of days.
Walters praised Mexican President Felipe Calderon for mounting a police and army offensive against the cartels, whom he called “terrorist criminals.”
“They have a choice: Come in and face justice, or die,” he said of the drug gangs.
He also said the United States did not object to the Calderon administration’s current legislative proposal to allow people caught with small amounts of some drugs to seek drug treatment rather than prison terms.
“There has been an impression left that this is legalizing the possession of amounts of drugs. That is not what Mexican officials tell me the bill does,” Walters said. “For the lower quantity, for use, you will still face jail time, you’ll be given an option if you’re an addict to get treatment.”
“I think the parameters and the intentions, that is exactly what we do in the United States.”
But Walters accused countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela of failing to cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking, and said drug corruption has penetrated Venezuela’s government.
“I think everybody knows that this rot is setting in on wider and wider portions of Venezuela government, and the Venezuelan government shows no sign it’s responding. It’s going to get worse,” he said.
He said Bolivia’s cocaine production is not hurting the United States — where little Bolivian cocaine is shipped — but is contributing to drug problems in Brazil, Argentina, Europe and other places.
Venezuela and Bolivia both insist they can combat drug trafficking without U.S. help. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez recently called Walters “stupid” for saying cocaine smuggling through Venezuela had quadrupled in four years.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Here’s a recent one, from Chesapeake, VA. Resident shoots undercover cop trying to break in through a back door. Now this man is up for capital murder and the DA and cops are playing games trying to spin things in their favor and make him out to be a “cop killer”.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/128723.html
What’s sickening is that cases like this (eg, Katherine Johnson case) get maybe a mention in the news, then it’s forgotten. This should be a MAJOR political issue. If democrats actually cared about civil rights like they claim, they’d be all over this and Obama would be talking about it. McCain also doesn’t mention it, despite the fact that it’s a risk for anyone who has a gun at home for self defense.
wow insane story !!!
I guess my only thought is I wonder if he had not shot through the door if the same charges would have happened or if they just want to set precedence for future raids ??
if the guy shot was not in the front lawn but in the house ?
noticed a guy in tucson shot 2 guys also in a home raid
not sure if both or one of the perps died ? but man this seems to be more and more these days ?
Judged by twelve or carried by six. If a CI gives a bogus call, or the cops screw up the address how can there be any felony charges? I think calling 911 pretty much shows you don’t think the cops are downstairs.
As to the cops not liking having to follow when they are using unmarked cars, too bad. Don’t use unmarked cars.
Hope they have cops read those stories. Botch a raid and not only will you die, and everyone will think you are a crooked cop.
Botched address, don’t people have Google earth?
I think the real issue is that there ultra-violent criminals out there, that forces the use of these tactics.
Local lawn service screws up addresses all the time, I’ve had my lawn aerated free twice this year.
That statement was written in a different time. I hate hearing it. It’s not that simple.
its a tough call I want cops to kick down bad guys doors and bust as many bad guys as they can
I do think if they bust down the wrong door of a innocent person they are in trouble or should be
there are to many ways these days to really know if its a bad house or not !!!
if they are not %100 sure then they should not go in raid style
but also the laws should truly punish the drug punks and stuff and less of this would be needed as they would truly be put away rather than getting a hand slap and back out on the streets
also the cops should have a bit more latitude when dealing with true bad guys
gets back to if the bad guys were really dealt with properly we would not have this much problem I think
this is one of those cases where the decision was made…“the needs/rights of the many, outweigh the needs/rights of the few, or the one”. The courts and LEO have determined that in the pursuit of justice, if some innocents get caught in the crossfire, then those numbers are acceptable.
Sorry, i grew up in a police family, played softball, volleyball, helped on house raisings and such, where everyone was LEO. A reserve officer for more then 6 years and not just parade duty; drug raids, prisoner transports, DUI’s, ground fights. And this still feels very very wrong to me. Even for LEO’s that go through the training (or hopefully they do), when you are doing a building search or breach a door and you see someone in front of you, there is a split second where you have to make a decision to shoot or not. With the No Knock ruling, we are now asking the average citizen to make that same decision, with the potential outcome of having shot a LEO that was doing their duty. And how many citizens will now hesitate that extra second, and perhaps pay for it with their life and the lives of their family.
not sure what the answer the is, but pretty sure the current situation isn’t the correct answer.
I guess a good rule of thumb would be not to steal millions of $$$ from Mexican drug cartels, or if you do, you expect them to be a little cranky and come looking for it…
B
LAS VEGAS – A 6-year-old boy kidnapped from a Las Vegas home by alleged drug dealers posing as policemen has been found alive in a neighborhood northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, police said early Sunday.
The child was “in extremely good condition” and had been taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas for examination, Las Vegas police Capt. Vincent Cannito said at a news conference.
“He is safe and in our custody,” Cannito said. “It’s a blessing this child has been found.”
Cole Puffinburger was recovered at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday after a caller informed detectives about a child walking alone on a street in a middle-class neighborhood of tidy, modest-sized homes about 5 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas police Officer Jay Rivera said.
Detectives discovered Cole outside a large Methodist church in the neighborhood. The area was being treated as a crime scene, but police gave no information about how Cole got there or where he had been kept since his Wednesday morning abduction.
The child was kidnapped at gunpoint by men who tied up the boy’s mother and her boyfriend and ransacked their home.
Cole’s father attended the news conference wearing a T-shirt with his son’s photograph, but would not comment on when he planned to see his son or whether Cole would be returning to his home or the boy’s mother’s home.
“This is just about Cole being home,” Robert Puffinburger said as he choked back tears. “Cole’s back.”
Authorities arrested Cole’s grandfather Clemens Tinnemeyer late Friday in connection with the boy’s disappearance. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Tinnemeyer was Cole’s maternal grandfather.
Police believe that the abductors were Mexican drug dealers and that the kidnapping at gunpoint was a “message” to Tinnemeyer, 51, whom they said may have stolen millions of dollars from dealers.
Tinnemeyer was arrested in Riverside, Calif., and was being held in nearby San Bernardino on a material witness warrant issued by a federal court in Nevada.
Officer Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas police spokesman, declined to say what role Tinnemeyer played in the drug operation or whether the kidnappers had been seeking a ransom.
Police believe methamphetamine was involved, Johnson said.
Las Vegas police didn’t know Saturday whether Tinnemeyer had a lawyer. He was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate Monday in Riverside.
Authorities investigating the abduction were also focussing on two other men, including a Mexican citizen identified as Jesus Gastelum.
Gastelum, who is in his mid-30s, is believed to be in Las Vegas or Southern California, police said. The other “person of interest” was not identified.
Police and child advocates had concentrated their search efforts on a largely Hispanic neighborhood a few miles from where Cole was found. They distributed fliers in English and Spanish with a photograph of Cole, a slight, smiling blonde in glasses.
Robert Puffinburger said he had just stopped passing out the fliers for the night when he got the call alerting him Cole had been found.
“I’m just so glad he’s safe,” he said.
Dead’s dead, when did that get outmoded? Of course its not that simple. The simple fact though is that the risk should be faced by the cops running no-knocks incorrectly, not by innocent people in their own homes.
Consider the family man with a house, couple of kids in public school, wife, friends, college accounts for the kids, parents and inlaws in the community. Then consider the litigious society we now live in where offenders have more rights than victims and it is not only possible but quite likely that the deceased extended family feel financially put out by you defending your family.
The local news media runs your name through the mud and decided to air your personal business, your kids are pressured in unimaginable ways at school, your wife is treated differently at work, your financially drained due to legal costs, everywhere you go people are talking, pointing, and discussing you and your family… Then what??? You get found innocent? Meanwhile you have had an ungodly amount of pressure built up in your family, your wife and you are having troubles, your kids don’t know what to think, your friends have distanced themselves, you’re broke…
It’s not as easy as “tried by 12 rather than carried by 6”. I personally feel it necessary to protect my family from anything by any means necessary. I can tell you from personal experience there are more than a few LE and/or civi’s in like situations that feel that their death would have been an easier and better situation for their family.
Everyone thumps their chest and claims righteousness will make their actions valid… Wake up and look around at the world you live in today.
I’m not advocating victim hood but people who make absolute statements or decisions without realizing all the possible scenarios or having all the facts is an epidemic. If you had considered this scenario and still feel tried by 12 then carried by 6 stands, then you have done your duty in my eyes of at least looking at whole picture before making up your mind.
Stay safe.
All that said, being poor beats being dead. You’re responsible for your actions…sometimes the consequences are even unfair, but your life is the only thing you really own. My family’s lives are even more precious than my own. No contest about which way to go.
You read that entire thing and got “being poor beats being dead”?..
Ok, I’ll play… Yes, being poor beats being dead…
Making a correct decision then having your entire family’s lives utterly destroyed…too some… may not beat being dead.
It was just something to think about. If the person making that statement has considered such a scenario or others like it and still feel that way then I’m happy.
Huh? You may want to re-read and then re-write that.
Anything beats being dead, ESPECIALLY if you made the correct decision. If you disagree, than oh well. I’m not going to try and change your mind.
I didn’t see this first go-round.
You are proving my point but not connecting the dots between what I’m saying and what you feel.
Some who find themselves in the scenario I described might feel that the outcome of their own personal death in the defense situation that caused this would have better served the protection purpose than to have their children and wife’s lives destroyed.
It’s not a perfect scenario and their are finer points that could be argued till the cows come home. I just wanted people to understand there is a reality and a finality that comes when you pull that trigger, whether you acted rightfully or not.
We have all ready stories of OBVIOUS cases of self defense where the individuals are facing not only financial ruin but prison time while their families suffer.
I just don’t want people to separate the 2 because they feel “that’ll never happen to me”.
I haven’t shared my personal choice yet, so to assume or attempt to infer something that’s not there would be unwise. I’m simply offering up another oft overlooked side of using a firearm in the defense of oneself and/or family.
and really I would say yes look at the world we live in these days !!!
cops are not so well liked and its getting worse for them!
its also about the lawyer you hire
if the family is like mine they would rather have me around then not !
also remember civil trial always follows and when the city looses millions because a few cops did not check the address correctly it wont get any better for them as they are here to serve and protect not to barge into my house and try to kill me !!! then drag me through the mud just being a good citizen
cops are also not perfect people and many have dirty laundry ! and many press would love to get a dirty cop ! so it goes both ways
I would never want to do this to the cops but at the same time ! if its my life or theirs ! I will take my life over theirs and that includes legally
again in reality to me the chances are greater the guys kicking in the door are bad guys and not cops
and thanks to bad guys we now have to make the choice even tougher to protect our families from dangers.
again the laws need to change to put the bad guys away for good and the need for these warrants will go way way way down
show me a few cases where a no knock warrant was served and the guy shot the cops and is in jail and was a perfect person meaning no drugs or turned out he was a convicted felon etc…
the one case above a bit the guy did have drugs ! that in publics eye kinda makes it OK
the guy shot a guy through a door and hit another guy in the front yard !!!
me I would never blindly shoot through the door like that as to hit someone in my front yard
I really think the law will fall down on our side as innocent families protecting our homes !!!
I do think if you are a convicted person or they find drugs in the house etc… you might be hosed but in my eyes you are not a good upstanding citizen then really so its more justified
so I think the odds are in our favor that we wont be in trouble when it comes to the law ! even if we shot a cop kicking in our door
also I think the police need to be kept in check and balances and not get so much power they can kick in wrong doors and destroy a innocent family just for that family protecting their property
and again while chances are the criminal it will be called a wash civil lawsuits are next and that is where the money comes in
but to play this out lets flip the situation and you dont pull the trigger and they are bad guys and your wife and child are now dead !!!
I guess when I way the balance of someone is in my house ! and their is no reason for them to be police or not !
and when my mind balances my families safety vs maybe me being in trouble ?
and the fact again chances of cops kicking in my door are less than bad guys ?