47-year-old Daniel Martin Jr. of Lawton Oklahoma was shot and killed by police in March after he called 911 to report vandals outside of his house.

The police responsible for the murder have been cleared of any wrong-doing by an internal investigation, and the death has been ruled “justified”.

When Mr. Martin spoke with the 911 dispatcher he warned them that he had a gun, and that he would be carrying it just in case the vandals were to break into his home.

However, somewhere this message got lost in translation, because when Martin opened his front door for the police, someone shouted “gun,” and Lawton police officers Elijah Garcia and Anthony Edwards fired multiple rounds, News Oklahoma reported.

Recordings later obtained of the exchange between the dispatcher and the police show that the police were warned that the victim would have a gun.

“They’re still at my front door,” he said.
The dispatcher asks if the vandals have a firearm, and Martin says he can’t tell. “But I have one,” he adds. “I’m inside with my weapon.”

The police say that Martin was on drugs at the time of the shooting and that he was having delusions, but his wife Tina has corroborated his version of events, and has stated that she was the one who convinced him to call 911 because she also feared for her life.

Attempting to serve a search warrant by entering a house through a window got Killeen, Texas, Police Detective Charles Dinwiddie shot in the face and killed last May. It was yet another SWAT raid organized for a purpose other than the reason they were invented. The police had a search warrant looking for narcotics at the home of Marvin Louis Guy, 49. They decided to serve this warrant at 5:30 in the morning and without knocking on his door. He opened fire on them, killing Dinwiddie and injuring three others.

Though they found a glass pipe, a grinder, and a pistol, they did not find any drugs. Former Reason Editor Radley Balko took note of the deadly raid in May at The Washington Post. A police informant apparently told them there were bags of cocaine inside the house, which sounds a lot like another familiar drug raid in Virginia that got an officer killed.

The Virginia case ended with Ryan Frederick in prison for 10 years despite his insistence he thought he was defending himself against in home intruders. He may end up lucky compared to Guy. Prosecutors in Texas are going to seek the death penalty against him. KWTX offers a dreadfully written summary that says next to nothing about the circumstances of the raid but gives Dinwiddie’s whole life story. Guy faces three additional charges of attempted capital murder for shooting the other officers. The story mentions the no-knock raid but fails to explain why it happened or the failure to find any drugs.

A search for Guy in the jail inmate locator for Bell County, Texas, shows that he is being charged only for the shootings. There are no drug-related charges listed. He is being held on a bond totaling $4.5 million.

PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida -- A government program that provides surplus military equipment to local agencies is also providing high-powered military rifles and other military-grade equipment to local school districts across the country, including the Pinellas County Schools.

Pinellas schools received 28 M16 rifles from the Department of Defense this summer and is working on a plan for training and use of the weapons.

The equipment was distributed via the DoD's 1033 program, a program that allows law enforcement agencies to acquire surplus military equipment at a discounted rate.

"Unfortunately, we know what goes on in the world today," said Pinellas Schools Police Chief Rick Stelljes, speaking of well-known school shootings. "We hope (using the weapons) is not necessary in Pinellas County."

Stelljes said M16s would only be necessary to subdue an attacker from long-range, since handguns are typically only accurate in close-range situations.

The department hasn't issued the weapons yet; Stelljes says he will soon implement a training and operation plan and hopes to have them ready-to-use by Thanksgiving.

HOUSTON -- City of Houston prosecutors are dismissing hundreds of speeding tickets written by four Houston Police officers accused in a ticket-rigging scheme first uncovered by the I-Team.

"It is in the interest of justice and simply the right thing to do," said Randy Zamora, Chief of the Criminal Law Division for the City of Houston Legal Department.

An I-Team analysis of months of tickets and GPS records revealed how Officers Rudolph Farias John Garcia, Robert Manzanales and Gregory Rosa, listed each other as "witnesses" on speeding violations when they were never there. Instead, records show those officers were writing tickets at the same time at completely different locations, sometimes miles away. The motivation in the alleged scheme was to appear in court more often and collect more overtime.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The off-duty New York City police officer at the wheel in a fatal wrong-way crash on the Thruway last month had a blood-alcohol content of nearly three times the legal limit, state police announced Wednesday.

Toxicology results show that Richard E. Christopher, 32, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21 percent when he drove his 2002 Dodge Dakota in the southbound lanes of the northbound Thruway near Suffern, slamming head-on into a Honda CRV driven by James DeVito of Airmont. A BAC above 0.08 is a misdemeanor.

Both men were killed in the crash, which occurred occurred just before 7 a.m. on Aug. 12.

Ronald T. Hosko, the former head of the FBI’s criminal investigative division, called the move by Apple “problematic,” saying it will contribute to the steady decrease of law enforcement’s ability to collect key evidence — to solve crimes and prevent them. The agency long has publicly worried about the “going dark” problem, in which the rising use of encryption across a range of services has undermined government’s ability to conduct surveillance, even when it is legally authorized.

“Our ability to act on data that does exist . . . is critical to our success,” Hosko said. He suggested that it would take a major event, such as a terrorist attack, to cause the pendulum to swing back toward giving authorities access to a broad range of digital information.

Today a federal appeals court rebuked police in Orange County, Florida, for mounting a warrantless, SWAT-style raid on a barbership under the pretense of assisting state inspectors. "We have twice held, on facts disturbingly similar to those presented here, that a criminal raid executed under the guise of an administrative inspection is constitutionally unreasonable," says the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. "We hope that the third time will be the charm."

On August 19, 2010, two inspectors from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) visited the Strictly Skillz Barbershop in Orlando and found everything in order: All of the barbers working there were properly licensed, and all of the work stations complied with state regulations. Two days later, even though no violations had been discovered and even though the DBPR is authorized to conduct such inspections only once every two years, the inspectors called again, this time accompanied by "between eight and ten officers, including narcotics agents," who "rushed into" the barbershop "like [a] SWAT team." Some of them wore masks and bulletproof vests and had their guns drawn. Meanwhile, police cars blocked off the parking lot.

The officers ordered all the customers to leave, announcing that the shop was "closed down indefinitely." They handcuffed the owner, Brian Berry, and two barbers who rented chairs from him, then proceeded to search the work stations and a storage room. They demanded the barbers' driver's licenses and checked for outstanding warrants. One of the inspectors, Amanda Fields, asked for the same paperwork she had seen two days earlier, going through the motions of verifying (again) that the barbers were not cutting hair without a license (a second-degree misdemeanor). Finding no regulatory violations or contraband, the officers released Berry and the others after about an hour.

Although ostensibly justified as a regulatory inspection, the raid on Strictly Skillz, like similar sweeps of other barbershops that same day, was part of an operation hatched by Fields and Cpl. Keith Vidler of the Orange County Sheriff's Office (OCSO), who hoped to find drugs, "gather intelligence," and "interview potential confidential informants." The barbershops chosen for the sweeps "were apparently selected because they or barbers within them had on previous occasions failed to cooperate with DBPR inspectors," the court says. "All of the targeted barbershops were businesses that serviced primarily African-American and Hispanic clientele."

...

With more than two decades of police experience under his belt, you would think Tucson police officer Bobby Nielsen would be able to conduct his job without being distracted by a mere camera flash.

Especially when he’s shining a powerful flashing into the photographer’s lenses.

But then again, with more than two decades of police experience, Nielsen has learned to manipulate the truth to his advantage, which is what he tried to do last week when snatching two cameras out of a man’s hands after claiming he was blinded by the flash.

The incident left Raymond Rodden hospitalized with a whiplash injury to his neck, an official diagnosis of cervical radiculopathy, a result of Nielsen yanking the camera so hard that the camera strap left him with a herniated disc.

...

Lilian Alonzo, the grandmother shot late last month during a DEA drug raid at her apartment, was picking up an infant when a bullet ripped through her arm and entered her torso, her son told the New Hampshire Union Leader.

The son said agents later tore up Alonzo’s apartment in a search for drugs. No drugs, weapons or large amounts of cash were found, said Daniel Nunez, who returned to his home in Florida after spending the last two weeks with his mother.

He said the shooting took place after his 10-year-old sister opened the door and police barged into the apartment.

“She (Alonzo) went to pick up the baby. They thought she was reaching for something, and they shot her,” Nunez believes.

Armed with a search warrant, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided the third-floor apartment at 110 Beech St. on Aug. 27, the day authorities broke up a drug ring that involved the transport and sale of large amounts of oxycodone.

According to police statements and court affidavits, police confiscated 1,600 tablets in arrests earlier in the day at other locations. The investigation has netted nine arrests and the confiscation of $58,000, guns and drugs.

Two of those arrested were Alonzo’s daughters — Johanna Nunez and Jennifer Nunez. Neither lives with their mother.

KANSAS CITY – A Missouri police officer said he smelled marijuana inside a car during a weekend traffic stop and used his Taser on the teenage driver only after the boy became combative when ordered out of the vehicle, according to court documents.

Bryce Masters, 17, of Independence, has been hospitalized since he was hit with the stun gun Sunday after Independence police said he refused to get out of the car he was driving.

A spokesman for Masters' family, attorney Daniel Haus, has said the teen went into cardiac arrest after probes from the Taser struck him about 6 inches apart near his heart.

Masters initially was placed in a medically induced coma and treated for a lack of oxygen to the brain.

He was upgraded Wednesday afternoon from critical to serious condition, and Haus said the teen has been speaking with doctors and his family.

The FBI is investigating whether the police officer, Tim Runnels, used excessive force. FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton has said the agency routinely gets involved when an officer is accused of using excessive force.

Withheld Evidence Will Cost Los Angeles Cops

Two Los Angeles police officers who deliberately withheld evidence of a man's innocence, causing him to spend 27 months in jail, must pay $106,000, the 9th Circuit ruled Wednesday.

Officers Steven Moody and Robert Pulido arrested Michael Walker in 2005 after employees at an EB Games store identified Walker as the man who robbed the same store three days before.

This robbery was the 12th robbery in southwest Los Angeles perpetrated by a man presenting a handwritten note that demanded money from the cashier.

While Walker was in custody, however, two more demand-note crimes took place, and the robber in both cases matched the description of the man who committed the prior crimes.

About a month after Walker's arrest, Stanley Smith was arrested while fleeing from a Blockbuster he had just robbed using a demand note. Smith specifically confessed to committing roughly two robberies per week, including one which occurred just days after Walker's arrest.

The case against Walker nevertheless continued full steam; neither officer informed prosecutors about the two other robberies that occurred after Walker's arrest, or of Smith's arrest.

In fact, a police report falsely said that "since the arrest of Walker the crime spree caused by the 'Demand Note Robber' has ceased."

Given this false report, Walker's defense attorneys did not request discovery on other demand-note crimes until a forensics test showed that his fingerprints did not match those found at the EB Games store.

Only after battling for additional discovery did the defense learn that demand-note robberies continued after Walker's arrest, and ultimately found that Smith's fingerprints matched those at EB Games.

Walker was released the same day - after spending 27 months in jail on $1.1 million bail. He died while his civil case was still in litigation, and his family is now pursuing his claims.

A jury found that Moody and Pulido violated Walker's constitutional rights by withholding key evidence of his innocence, and awarded him $106,000.

The 9th Circuit affirmed the verdict and award Wednesday.

City of Houston prosecutors have decided to dismiss over 6,000 traffic tickets issued by four police officers after investigators discovered the men were involved in a ticket-rigging ring in order to get more overtime, reports KHOU.

Officers Rudolph Farias, John Garcia, Robert Manzanales and Gregory Rosa have been accused of issuing a combined 6,150 traffic tickets, listing each other as witnesses when they were never there, alowing them to make more courtroom appearances in order to receive more overtime pay.

An employee said Miller acted rude and yelled at her Friday, when he came to pick up the vehicle.

But Miller’s son said he was yelling because he had only 2 percent of his hearing.

The employee called police during that incident because Miller showed her his holstered gun, and she feared for her safety.

Police determined Miller had a valid conceal-carry permit and allowed him to keep the weapon.

Miller returned about 2:30 p.m. Saturday with the correct amount he owed the towing company, and the dispute resumed.

Hernandez and another deputy were already at Fryer’s on an unrelated matter and heard a heated argument outside the building.

Hernandez went outside to investigate and identified himself as a deputy, and then he noticed Miller had a gun.

“While the specific sequence of events isn’t being released at this time due to the ongoing investigation, during the encounter, Hernandez perceived a threat and fired his duty weapon, striking and killing the man,” said Gary Davidson, a spokesman for the sheriff’s department.

But Miller’s son said he tried to explain to the deputies that his father was deaf.

“I kept telling them that he can’t hear them,” said the son, also named Edward Miller. “I kept telling them he can’t understand them.”

Deputies briefly detained the son for questioning after the shooting.

Two days after Brown's neighbor called in the complaint, the SWAT team rolled onto Brown's property, said Josh Tolini, one of three attorneys representing Brown.

"They were shooting canisters of tear gas," Tolini said.

Brown was in the basement of his home and did not come out, Tolini said.

The city attorney, through a spokeswoman, said the city does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The memo to the council said that police ordered Brown to exit his house. The standoff began at 4:30 p.m. and continued even after police introduced tear gas into the main level of the home, the memo said. The police then tried to introduce tear gas into the basement but were unsuccessful. Police evacuated 30 homes in the neighborhood.

Tolini said a robot was en route from Fort Carson to give police a view inside the house, "but for some reason they decide to blow a hole into the floor to get tear gas into the basement."

Tolini added that the police had not previously tried such a maneuver, even in training.

The explosive device caused the floor to crash down onto Brown, Tolini said. He was burned and injured. Thirty minutes later, police entered the home and Brown was taken to an area hospital at 2 a.m.

The memo to the council said that police found Brown in his bed wearing a helmet, gas mask and flak vest. Their report said Brown suffered a broken leg.

Tolini said the explosion destroyed part of the house, including blowing out the windows. As a result, Brown lost his house, Tolini said.

Under City Charter, the city must determine if police were operating within the course and scope of their duties to determine if the city would pay for attorneys' fees, a city spokeswoman said.


Read more at City Attorney's Office to represent Colorado Springs police in lawsuit

Witnesses said the officers stopped the boys as they emerged from an auto sales parking lot on East Columbus Avenue just after 10 p.m. The officers were on a special detail to combat a rash of car break-ins downtown that summer. Dominic May, a witness for plaintiff Kissa Owens, Walker's mother, said Sullivan grabbed repeatedly for Walker's throat when he didn't immediately terminate a cell phone call.

May told jurors Sullivan sent Walker spinning back into the path of an oncoming car. Sullivan and Albano testified that Walker was immediately combative with police and began reaching for something in his pocket, then danced backwards into traffic.

The driver of the Toyota Camry that plowed into Walker was not charged.

A lawsuit filed by Owens in 2012 alleged civil rights violations including excessive force, reckless intent, false arrest, assault and battery and wrongful death. Jurors found in favor of the plaintiff on the matters of the civil rights violations, reckless intent and assault and battery. It found in favor of Sullivan on the false arrest and wrongful death counts.

The jury returned its unanimous verdict just after 3 p.m. When the damages were announced, a silence fell over the courtroom. Walker's family and supporters filled half the gallery throughout the trial.

Drug charges have been dropped against a Commerce woman after crime lab analysis confirmed her claim that a spoon she had in a vehicle leading to her arrest did not contain methamphetamine residue but spaghetti sauce.

Ashley Gabrielle Huff, 23, initially was charged with possession of methamphetamine. She maintained the residue on a spoon was spaghetti sauce, not meth.

After the analysis agreed, the charge was dismissed. She was released from the Hall County Jail on Thursday night.

“I think she said it had been SpaghettiOs,” Hall County assistant public defender Chris van Rossem said.

Huff was arrested July 2 by the Gainesville Police Department, suspected of having meth residue on a spoon, van Rossem said.

“From what I understand, she was a passenger in a car and had a spoon on her, near her, and I guess the officer, for whatever reason, thought there was some residue,” he said.