Man who shot cop during raid thought he was defending pregnant girlfriend from robbers

The Daily Caller ^ | 2-10-2014 | Robby Soave

[servo1969]

Henry Magee, a 28-year-old Texan who accidentally shot and killed a police officer during a no-knock raid on his home, will not be indicted on murder charges, according to a grand jury.

Burleson County police raided Magee’s home in December after receiving a tip from an informant that he was in possession of drugs. Five pounds of marijuana were found the premises.

Police did not knock before entering the home, and they executed the search before sunrise, when it was still dark outside. Magee’s lawyer told the grand jury that his client thought the police were burglars, and he fired his gun to protect his girlfriend, who was pregnant. The bullet struck and killed Deputy Adam Sowders.

Magee and the police disagree over whether the police announced themselves.

The grand jury determined that there was not enough evidence to charge Magee with murder. He was indicted for possession of illegal drugs while in possession of a deadly weapon, however.

The lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, stressed that the accidental shooting would not have occurred if police had attempted the raid in the daylight, or identified themselves first.

“It need not have happened,” said DeGuerin, in a statement to KBTX. “They could have walked up to his house in the daylight and he would have let him in or they could have stopped him as he left his house to go to the store.”

But police made no apologies for the raid. The fault lies with Magee for choosing to store illegal drugs in his home, according to the district attorney.

“The Burleson County Sheriff’s Office would not have been there that day if Mr. Magee had not decided to live a lifestyle of doing and producing illegal drugs in his home,” said a statement from the DA’s office. “Therefore, we will fully prosecute the drug charges against him.”

Sowders had sought and obtained a no-knock warrant to search Magee’s home. Sowders thought that knocking first would be “dangerous, futile, or would inhibit the effictive investigation,” because it would give DeGuerin time to arm himself and destroy the drugs.

[servo1969]

The cops went in cocked and locked and it cost one of their own his life.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. And completely unnecessary. No one was being murdered at the time. They could have just waited for him to walk out side. But no, they have to go in balls to the wall because they're the police and they go anywhere they want at any time. Why? Just to show that they can. And in Texas, too. That was really smart.

Shame the cop died but I really hope this was a case of jury nullification.
As in-
Cops: We can do whatever we want.
Jury: No. You can't.

Did they guy deserve to go to jail for drugs? Yep. But not for shooting the cop in the dark. What if they were busting in the house next door by accident? Happens all the time.

[DCBryan1]

This exact same thing happened in Topeka Kansas in the mid 90s. Topeka police department swat team served a no knock warrant and one of the policeman got shot upon entry and later died. The police swore up-and-down that they screamed the words “search warrant”. However eyewitnesses on both sides of the target house (small, close "shotgun"-style homes) testified otherwise. The house across the street had a firefighter who came home late and witnessed the raid. He testified that they immediately went in and never heard the words “search warrant” shouted.

The thin blue line of lies crumbled due to three (3) independent witnesses refuting the cover-up of their malfeasance. No drugs or guns were found. The man walked. He had to move because of all the harassment afterwards.

[Still Thinking]

Magee and the police disagree over whether the police announced themselves.

Who cares? I'm pretty sure all but the dumbest home-invaders could master yelling "Police!" How can you put the onus on the private citizen to guess correctly? If the state actors can't figure out some way to serve a warrant without putting private citizens in that kind of a life-or-death dilemma, they should go back to the old way of serving warrants till they can. No justification for moving that risk to him.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Damn right you can shoot someone breaking into your house. Too bad he didn’t see the badge first, but not his fault.

[MrB]

The obvious solution that won’t be accepted is an end to no knock raids.

[Still Thinking]

And besides, announcing themselves in irrelevant anyway. Read my Post #3.

[who knows what evil?]

Aren’t they supposed to present a search warrant to the victim before they enter?

[Responsibility2nd]

Henry Magee, a 28-year-old Texan who accidentally shot and killed a police officer ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Say What Now?

There was no accident. Magee did it on purpose. Was it a cop? Was it a crook? Whatever. His life was on the line that morning and he took action.

Deliberately took action.

[DCBryan1]

This exact same thing happened in Topeka Kansas in the mid 90s. Topeka police department swat team served a no knock warrant and one of the policeman got shot upon entry and later died. The police swore up-and-down that they screamed the words “search warrant”. However eyewitnesses on both sides of the target house (small, close "shotgun"-style homes) testified otherwise. The house across the street had a firefighter who came home late and witnessed the raid. He testified that they immediately went in and never heard the words “search warrant” shouted.

The thin blue line of lies crumbled due to three (3) independent witnesses refuting the cover-up of their malfeasance. No drugs or guns were found. The man walked. He had to move because of all the harassment afterwards.

They tried to charge him with some trumped up charges and chased him out of town shortly thereafter:

Click HERE FOR SOURCE

[Navy Patriot]

The cop committed suicide by no knock.

[DCBryan1]

Damn....lets try again: SOURCE

[DCBryan1]

From Officer down page: Patrolman Patterson was shot and killed while conducting a drug raid on a house. Patrolman Patterson was the ram man for the raid. In his attempt to ram the suspect's door a piece of the door panel was broken out. The suspect fired a shot through the hole in the door, striking Patrolman Patterson. Although he was wearing his bullet-resistant vest, the shot entered through his left arm, which was unprotected, and continued through his left side, killing him. Unsuccessful attempts were made by fellow officers and paramedics to revive Patrolman Patterson The suspect was injured in the leg by return fire from another officer involved in the raid.

The suspect was acquitted of the murder of Patrolman Patterson. He was found guilty of Battery Against a Law Enforcement Officer for pointing his weapon at Patrolman Patterson partner and was also found guilty of several drug charges. The suspect never served any time in prison for the murder of Patrolman Patterson.

Patrolman Patterson had been with the agency for six years and is survived his wife and two young children.

Read more: http://www.odmp.org/officer/901-patrolman-tony-ray-patterson#ixzz2sx4gUz8F

[Pollster1]

There was no accident. Magee did it on purpose.

I was going to say the same thing; that was no accident. It was a completely reasonable and conscious decision based on limited information in a situation that the police foolishly created. No knock raids are almost always the wrong choice, and this was the cost of doing business stupidly.

[servo1969]

See, it would have been accurate to say - ‘The suspect never served any time in prison for the killing of Patrolman Patterson.’ That would be true. He did kill him. But he wasn’t murdered.

A grand jury refused to charge him with murder.

Because they saw that it wasn’t.

[SoothingDave]

Sowders thought that knocking first would be “dangerous, futile, or would inhibit the effictive investigation,” because it would give DeGuerin time to arm himself and destroy the drugs.

That's right. If given a minute, he could have flushed 5 pounds of weed down the toilet.

[who knows what evil?]

They tried to charge him with some trumped up charges and chased him out of town shortly thereafter:

Chased him out of town? Really?

[DCBryan1]

Correct. I was in Lawrence, KS at the time doing my MA in History. I remember the whole uproar. The kid was from a pretty good family, had a job, and was in college even. Dad was a WWII hero and well respected in the community.

IIRC he actually did do some time for minor drugs, and then, when released from jail/prison justifiably fled the state. I just remember in Lawrence everyone said to beware of "crooked" Topeka PD. Those guys would say/do anything to cover up shoddy warrants, lying CIs, even plant evidence, etc.

It was only the testimony of eyewitnesses that refuted the Police assertion that they announced "Police! Search Warrant!" that this kid didn't get the death penalty. This was around the time of WACO too.

[DJ MacWoW]

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[Fightin Whitey]

But police made no apologies for the raid.

Well, then everybody's happy, right? Magee defended his home (as would I) and his girlfriend, the cops got their little pot bust, and Deputy Sowders got to play the badass hero, though the glory didn't last long.

They could have walked up to Magee on the street, carried out the arrest warrant, etc. etc.

Instead they have a dead officer and no apologies to offer. Goodie for them.