Posted on 01/04/2009 6:40:12 AM PST by rellimpank
Las Vegas police officers served a search warrant at the Seven Hills home of Emmanuel Dozier on Panorama Ridge Drive in Henderson at about 9:30 last Sunday evening.
The officers say they announced themselves, got no response, and opened fire to break the lock off the metal front door.
At that point, the suspect, a 32-year-old sheet-metal worker, also opened fire. Three police officers were wounded.
Mr. Dozier, who was suspected of cocaine trafficking and is now held in lieu of $3 million bail, says he thought it was a home invasion.
"I want you to know something in your heart. I did not mean to shoot any cops," police report that he told them.
An attorney for his girlfriend, Belinda Saavedra, says her client dialed 9-1-1 from the home during the police raid, believing it to be a (non-police) home invasion.
(Excerpt) Read more at lvrj.com ...
No cocaine was found in the home, and it initially appeared the charges filed against Mr. Dozier -- attempted murder and possession of a controlled substance, to wit marijuana -- did not include the alleged cocaine trafficking that supposedly prompted the raid.Think about the import of that for a moment, before you reflexively support the cops on this one.So the raid itself instigated a crime more serious than that cited on the arrest warrant.
There WAS no crime until the police broke in in the middle of the night.
Then suddenly the guy is facing 3 million dollars bail.
What would YOU do if you heard someone smashing your door down in the middle of the night?
I think if it turns out that he really did call 911, then all charges should be dropped.
So, someone is outside his house ... SHOOTING to break open the suspect's front door ... and he's in trouble for returning fire.
Sorry, but shooting open the front door is piss poor procedure on the part of the LV Police Department ... extremely piss poor.
Dialing 911 constitutes reasonable doubt..IMHO
Still, if these people allow any emotions at all, they should be removed from active duty. If they want to continue shooting down doors when there are small children inside the house, this will require extraordinary measures and standards. One coke dealer is not that important.
How do I get on the jury?
This is so screwed up. Get a search warrant, and an arrest warrant, wait until the guy is leaving the house. Arrest him on his way to work, or to the store. Then search his house. Don’t start shooting at the house on a Sunday night! This is sooo stooopid!
Why do they go to homes in the dead of night? Why not just wait ‘til the subject leaves the house for work (or whatever) and snatch him while he’s commuting or going about his business? A little surveillance and you know when the house is unoccupied. Take your search warrant in when the house has been vacated.
For one thing, you have to live in Nevada. I used to. I don’t anymore. If I still did, I would to be on the jury for this case (if it comes to trial) and then, once on, I would do my level-headed best to sort through all the claims and counter-claims and render a just verdict.
Right now, it’s not really possible to know much of the facts.
One thing I’m sure of, however, these night-time police raids should be highly circumscribed and used only in EXTREME circumstances.
Selling a bit of cocaine to some undercovers does NOT warrant this type of home invasion.
Why not just arrest him while he’s making the sale?
Why do they go to homes in the dead of night? Why not just wait ‘til the subject leaves the house for work (or whatever) and snatch him while he’s commuting or going about his business? A little surveillance and you know when the house is unoccupied. Take your search warrant in when the house has been vacated.Because they watch too much TV and they all want to be freaking rock-star cop-show heroes?
I stayed at the Luxor once, does that count?
Why does a dog lick his own balls? Because he can.
It's the militarization of the police that causes this mindset. I wonder how much training they receive on citizen's Constitutional rights?
Now there’s an idea! Come to Vegas. We’ll throw in some free pulls on the mega-slot machine AND you get to sit on a local jury!
Could boost tourism.
And if your home is being invaded then you damn sure have a right to start shooting.And the cops know that, which is why they came with a SWAT team.
Of course, there WERE other alternatives. But that would require actual THOUGHT.
Come on, how else are they going to have a reason to put on their knee pads and cool SWAT gear?
I’ve never heard of shooting the door locks as standard proceedure.
I would also be protecting my home if someone tried this.
Can I vote against Dirty Harry, too? I’d throw in a trip to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon for that.
Jack booted thug alert.
was Lon Horiuci there to shoot any baby holding women to death?
Don't cops watch cable TV?
I’m no fan of these raids, but if continued, I’d like to see a law at least requiring these things to be recorded. Too often, especially when the occupants are dead, the facts get a little fuzzy. Did they announce themselves before they entered, did they whisper it. We need tape and maybe it would change the way they do things.
I doubt the Chief would entrust expensive high tech gear to a bunch of guys who tried to shoot off a lock.
Now, an obvious question ~ was this a padlock OUTSIDE? And if so, was this the front door or a side/back door, and if not, how was it the occupants put a padlock on the door after they wet inside.
Something's not computing well in this one.
Not that they were justified in this case, but something like this this is what’s used.
Actually, that's only true with "standard" loads. There are some shotgun specialty loads that are designed to do exactly this, taking out deadbolt locks, and even door hinges. It's typically a frangible, powdered metal projectile that is fired from just a few inches away, and it will take out a deadbolt lock or door hinge, even from 16ga metal doors.
These are typically known as "breaching loads," and are as deadly to humans as a slug.
Mark
Do you think they used such a weapon?
Sorry, you give up your Constitutional rights at the moment the SWAT team rolls up to your property. They can't be at the wrong house, have a suspect warrant. < / s >
The good news is they didn't shoot the dog, of course they never had the chance so we will never really know for sure
Great observation. This is exactly the kind of question a video would have recorded. Most cops have dash vids, so why not head-mounts. BTW, I'm not a cop basher and generally like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but most of these raids in retrospect seem a little overkill. Hell, even David Koresh could have been arrested on a trip to town.
I thought shooting at a lock to break down a door was an idiot move only done in movies......not by “trained professionals”
I think we still need to know what kind of door lock these folks had. If the police were standing there firing at a padlock on the outside of a home I'd have to doubt their mental ability. If just an ordinary passage lock they could have busted it with a hammer. The type of locks I have wouldn't have been bothered by that breaching load but it might have knocked a hole in my metal doors.
We had a lock failure in the door leading to our men's room at work. Couldn't get in. Fortunately we could use other facilities elsewhere in the building.
This lock had a titanium housing. It couldn't be bent, banged on, sawn, or whatever. I got one of my carbide tipped machine tool drill bits (appropriate for boring holes in Engine blocks) and busted it up in a couple of hours.
That lock impressed me although I had to question the wisdom of the guy who thought it would be good to use such a device INSIDE a building for a very high use room!
Do you think they used such a weapon?
Well, first off, the weapon is just a standard issue, 12ga shotgun. Nothing special about it. It's just the round that's different. And that's what many PDs use IF they use a shotgun to breech an entry, rather than a battering ram.
Actually, this is a much safer load to use than a slug or buckshot for taking out a door - Once the energy is imparted to a sufficiently hard object, it just turns to powder, and it's safer for everyone involved. Of course, human tissue ISN'T hard enough, so if it were used against a person, it would be like hitting them with a 12ga slug.
As far as sparks, I suppose that it's a possibility, but it doesn't seem to have caused any problems "in the real world" so far, at least not that I'm aware of.
Mark
Just arresting a suspect like that would be work for regular police. I think there are SWAT raids that are not necessary but are done anyway as an excuse to increase funding for SWAT teams. If the suspect is innocent but is killed shooting back, thinking he is being attacked by criminals, so much the better. The person killed will not be a witnesses. The news media will just report that a "suspected drug ring-leader" was killed in a shoot-out with police. The so-called civil libertarians are mostly concerned with hardened criminals and terrorists, so there generally is not much of an uproar when an ordinary citizen is the victim of a police death squad. Most liberals are eager for the day when death squads are used for things in addition to bogus drug raids - wait till they ban guns, cigarettes, sugar, fur coats, incadescent light bulbs, etc. Obama's domestic army will be very busy.
I saw a picture of the door. Basically, it was just a screen door that opens outward and has some ornamental/security aluminum or wrought iron bars on it. Looks like it was shot no less than 6 times plus a larger hole. There was glass brick, about 18 inches wide to one side of the door.
After all what are you doing in their that you don't want people to see?
If you make your home safe from common criminals the government objects;welcome to bizarro world !
And just so people know,, the door shooting is almost sure to be those 12 ga “breaching round” shotshells. Size of a 12 ga slug, but it somehow is destroyed into powder on impact.
Blow a lock assembly or hinges right away.
But they sound exactly like a full on 12 Ga.
A great legitimate tool in a legitimate circumstance, ie,,Iraq,,,or maybe here for hostage rescue. But to stop some dope from being flushed?
We truly have lost inmeasurable rights in the war on drugs.
The militarizarion of law enforcement here is not a good thing IMO. When you have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Recruiting posters in my town look like they are trying to form a delta force/seal/ranger unit or something. No norman rockwell posters of a beat cop talking kindly to a runaway kid.
That being said,,, i don’t have a problem with swat capabilities, or officers having assault rifles. Our cops should be as well-armed as their adversaries. IE,,, the photos of cops with Thompson subguns. But depts need to use this capability *very* sparingly, and continually instill respect for civil rights.
Even David Koresh of branch davidian Waco fame was a candidate for this “arrest away from home” techinque. He was widely seen in town on a regular basis. He used to always eat at the Chelsea Street pub.
Also,, a few years before the raid, he was arrested on a homicide warrant. (found not guikty at trial)
How did they get him? Two McClennan county Sheriff deputies in suits walked up and knocked on the door with a warrant.
And you are correct friend, a newsmaking splashy raid is something that is good for funding.
Same here. Dozier needs to not only be acquitted but win the lottery as well.
This kind of crap needs to end. I can think of few violations more offensive than that which Mr. Dozier and his family have been subjected to. And now he languishes in prison as his family figures out a way to put food on their table and make their house payments for defending his family against invaders shooting their way into his home.
This crap just burns me up and has really done a lot to turn myself, a 40 year-old, active duty sailor, serving my country, law-abiding, family man against the police.
If they used the lockbuster on the flush door, they missed too.
THEY MISSED!!!
Now how can you miss the door handle/lock standing right there.
I'm sure most of you old guys remember (first name redacted) (last name redacted.) I don't know if you know that he now lives in Las Vegas, and is a member of our police SWAT team. They had a high risk search warrant, so when that happens, the SWAT team is the one to serve it. When they got to the door, it was a metal security door, (first name redacted) fired five shotgun rounds trying to open the door. The person inside started shooting back through the door, wounding three of the SWAT team members. They're all okay now. (first name redacted) got shot in the leg, just above the knee. He's home recovering now. Old (group word redacted) (group word redacted) still can't resist being where the action is!!!
Sheriff Andy using his intelligence and humanity (backed up with a gun) to diffuse a situation is, well, that is so wimpy and dull and not newsworthy. Sending 100 Barney Fifes to the wrong house with machine guns blazing is macho and exciting and an excuse to ask for more funding. They can argue it took 100 Barney Fifes with machine guns to pacify the wrong house that had a 90 year old grandma and her cats in it, therefore they need funding for 500 Barney Fifes and a small tank just in case they really do have to attack a house that happens to have a dangerous criminal in it. Statistically, sooner or later a stray bullet might hit a real criminal so there, it is justified.
That's because they used standard, over the counter ammunition. Door breaching rounds are made with a sintered slug of powdered metal and fired at point blank range from a 12 ga. shotgun. The slug disintegrates on impact and expends all it's kinetic energy on the lock. The shotgun is usually fitted with a tubular "stand off" device which allows the shooter to in effect, put the muzzle right on the lock.
Regards,
GtG
PS If the lock doesn't fall off, use a bigger gun! A .50BMG round will go through 2" of mild steel...
It looks like their breaching round missed the target!
Fasinating...
I stand corrected.
Depending on what needs to be breached, they’ll use a sledgehammer, a door ram, or a breaching round. Explosives are also used when necessary, although that’s more of a military thing. I gather that most civilian LEO departments don’t use them.
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