This is unbelievable, swat team raids a family home and kills former marine who thought his home was being invaded. As the marine lays dying, wife calls 911 and requests medical help and they arrive 2 minutes later only to be refused entry into the home because its not deemed safe yet. The first link is huffington post, and the 2nd link is the actual camera on swat team members helmet.

Huffington Post

Helmet Camera

ouch. that sure looks like a major cock up. and the helmet footage is out in the open so the public can make up its mind.

That is absolutely disgusting. It seems to me that the SWAT Officers were primed for a shooting...they were the only ones shooting though. I wonder if turning on the lights and siren for eight (8) seconds in the driveway...after the Officers had dismounted and surrounded the door...constitutes "arriving with lights and siren blaring". Note at 18 seconds into the video one of the Officers says "BANG BANG BANG"...why??? At 28 seconds they bang on the door and announce "Police, Search Warrant", then two (2) seconds later the door is forced and about six (6) seconds later all hell breaks loose.

I'm not a trained Police or SWAT Officer so I do not know what their training is for this type of activity, but I have done building entries in the Army, and I would imagine that they would be very similar. If these guys were my soldiers doing an entry, they would be training every weekend for the next month till they got it right.

Be interesting to see what the eventual result of an investigation concludes. One thing though, the Police Dept involved should not be allowed to conduct the investigation; it should be done by a completely independent authority...the FBI maybe.

Cheers, Vince

Things like this happen much too often. I remember quite a few years ago an older couple in southern Illinois had a drug enforcement team break down their door in the middle of the night (a case of having the wrong address on the warrant). If memory serves, the man came out of the bedroom and, since he was standing next to a table with a cased replica of a Walker Colt, the team shot and killed him.

They did express their regrets afterwards, so that made things fine...damned cold comfort for the deceased man and his widow.

I'm speechless. They even have music playing as the conduct the raid. Not letting the wive be with her husband or the medical team treat him. Heartless!!!

Did you see all the other law enforcement "mistakes" that showed up on youtube?

Wow, after doing more searches on this botched job, apparently the SCOTUS has ruled last week and gave the law enforcement more power by expanding warrant-less searches on premises under special circumstances.

Supreme Court Ruling

I have heard over the years of people on both sides of the fence getting killed during a forced break-in by law enforcement. Someone on that court needs to wake up and hear the birds sing.

A couple of years ago something similar happened here in Québec, but the police officer is the one that got shot. It was a forced dynamic entry in the middle of the night with of all things an illegal warrant. As the police officers forced the door, the husband fired three shots down the hall from his bedroom and killed an officer who was dressed in black in the dark and could not be identified as a police officer. The other officers fired multiple shots and hit no one but came close as bullets ripped through the bedroom wall of the children’s room.
The man was exonerated. The coroner asked why the police did not wait until morning when the man went to work and stop him as a routine road intervention a few blocks away from his home.

Innocent or not, its not the police to decide its the courts at a later date. No knock warrants invite shootings that don't lead to any kind of legal justice.

Personally I am not a fan of them.

Dimitri

now who primed the team/ gave them the brief before hand. That would be where a large proportion of the buck would/should stop. If the officers were told multiple automatic weapons on premises drug addicted home owner possible boobie traps bla bla bla, the boys would be primed for a show down. it doesnt excuse the outcome but would put the outcome in perspective, with a brief along those lines the outcome would have been predetermined nomatter what they found.

From what I read, it was a 4 county law enforcement raid on his house. And upon further reading it seems that the documents are sealed now and law enforcement changed their story 2 times already and are refusing to give any more details. So that right there tells me somethings amuck.

I want to be on the jury when that SWAT Team comes up on charges. Take care...
Joe

Inexcusable! The police departments involved in this should be disbanded and their duties taken over by the State Police. The officers that fired the 70 shots killing this man should be charged with murder, plain and simple.
Don

I'll be the devil advocate.

Just because the victim was a marine, that does not mean he is automatically innocent.
There must be a reason for the police/SWAT to visit THAT house forcefully,
sadly they are doing their job, un popular it might be.

As far as I know, if faced with threat (such as someone is shooting at you),
the training mandate you to keep shooting until the threat is removed.

Paramedics are vulnerable to gun shots too, if the building has not been cleared,
it is still a danger for them to enter, even if there is a dying man that need immediate help.
Nook and crannies in houses might harbor dangerous villains.

Whatever we are hearing is hearsay, we are not there, we do not know the background of the incident.

So there..

as I said Gelandangan what was the pre-op briefing???