Posted on 02/18/2014 11:24:16 PM PST by chessplayer
How did an 80-year-old man end up shot to death in his own bed by Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs? Reason’s Zach Weissmuller takes an in-depth look at the death of Eugene Mallory, who died in a hail of bullets triggered by supposedly challenging the deputies with a gun in the hallway of his own home during a meth raid. Only Mallory didn’t get shot in the hallway — he got shot in his bedroom, and the bullets came before the deputy warned him to put his gun down. Did Mallory pick up the gun at all? And what were deputies doing by raiding the house in the first place? Mallory’s widow wants answers:
Deputies approached the house, and what happened next is where things get murky. The deputies said they announced their presence upon entering and were met in the hallway by the 80-year-old man, wielding a gun and stumbling towards them. The deputies later changed the story when the massive bloodstains on Mallory’s mattress indicated to investigators that he’d most likely been in bed at the time of the shooting. Investigators also found that an audio recording of the incident revealed a discrepancy in the deputies’ original narrative:
Before listening to the audio recording, [Sgt. John] Bones believed that he told Mallory to “Drop the gun” prior to the shooting. The recording revealed, however, that his commands to “Drop the gun” occurred immediately AFTER the shooting.
When it was all over, Eugene Mallory died of six gunshot wounds from Sgt. John Bones’ MP-5 9mm submachine gun. When a coroner arrived, he found the loaded .22 caliber pistol the two deputies claimed Mallory had pointed at them ON THE BEDSIDE TABLE.
Mallory had not fired a single shot. The raid turned up no evidence of methamphetamine on the property.
The raid was conducted on the strength of a confidential informant and an investigator who claimed to have detected a “strong chemical odor” while downwind of the house. That apparently justified a military-style raid on the property, even though Mallory had no criminal history, let alone any indication of violence.
Well, thank goodness the cops all went home safe!
Ya gotta have a perimeter.
Cue drug warriors saying this is all totally worth it so long as it maybe, possibly can stop a man from using marijuana to relieve illness pain or college kids lighting up a joint on Spring Break.
Is it possible to ping whoever is in charge of the libertarian, nanny state and moral absolute ping lists? I do admit it would be largely for entertainment purposes
>> libertarian, nanny state and moral absolute
Three way cage fight!
I’m guessing the pistol wasn’t registered to mallory in any way shape or form. We have obstruction of justice, tampering with a crime scene/evidence, falsification of legal records, conspiracy, murder. I’ll bet Sgt. Bones gets at least 14 days of paid leave out of this. see my tag line btw.
It's perfectly obvious that when thugs break into your home and shoot you full of lead, the last thing you do in your life is you carefully put your handgun onto the bedside table.
Cops, conf informant, judge that signed warrant should all be charged with murder.
So much for the Drug War. Pass some more cash into the pockets of the mayor and the other corrupt government back pockets to the illegal drug industry.
I’m of the mind that no search warrant should ever be issued...unless the Judge himself is willing to accompany the cops and stay for the whole episode. If things go wrong...the judge is to be held responsible. Once you establish this threshold....most judges won’t readily approve search warrants, and this whole problem will evaporate within months across the nation.
It’s, you know, because drugs. Drugs are bad.
Mkay?
It’s perfectly obvious that when thugs break into your home and shoot you full of lead, the last thing you do in your life is you carefully put your handgun onto the bedside table.
Especially when they tell you to put it down AFTER they have emptied their guns into you.
OK. so let’s say it was a meth lab. A few things about this raid would have not either been necessary or helpful.A dealer can flush product down the toilet if they have warning. Can’t exactly flush a meth lab. It is there. So, a no knock was not necessary. As far as a surprising these dangerous people, meth people are probably going to know you are there before the knock. So, you knock and say police and if there is no response, you go in. IF you have RELIABLE, ACTUAL evidence, not the smell of acetone!
These POS cops deserve the worst that could be given them, but it will never happen. There are no consequences.That poor man thought he was being robbed. He was right.
Details and interviews with the family members that were present here:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1e8_1392397184
Give the fact we live in a tyrannical police state - based on all these stories I’m reading - you will get killed by the cops for whatever reason they lie about, whether you comply with the demand to submit to a boot on your neck or not.
They will kill you in your bed and then make up bullpuckey to justify your murder.
There is absolutely NO REASON to trust the police, PERIOD.
We’d be safer taking our own chances with criminals, at least your chances of surviving an encounter with them is far greater than an encounter with cops.
It remains to be seen if the old man even owned that gun. It could be a drop gun, deployed by one of LEOs present when it became obvious that they killed an innocent man. A .22LR (or worse) gun isn't an ideal choice for home defense, especially if it's a semi-auto - they cycle poorly because there is too little energy in this tiny cartridge, and you have to carefully select the ammo that works in a given handgun. Revolvers have no such problem, of course.
Typically, drop guns are deployed when an LEO kills an unarmed criminal. Then the origin of the drop gun (often another criminal) is not a concern. However in this case it may be possible to trace the gun... and if it appears that it was stolen and then went through several hands, it would be very, very unlikely that an old person would even consider getting a "hot" gun like that when he can go and buy his very own gun at the nearest gun store. Furthermore, a person who has a gun when he is 80+ years old probably had guns since he was a kid... and then he had no need to buy anything for decades. Guns last a very long time if they are even minimally cared for. This means that either the old man owned this gun fair and square, for a long time, or he never owned a gun.
There will be also other signs, such as presence of ammo in the house, and of cleaning supplies. If there is no ammo, then the owner had no firearms, and the gun was added to the crime scene by the police.
Another test one can do is fingerprints. A personal firearm will be full of fingerprints of the owner, all over it - simply because you have to hold it in every possible way when you clean it. But a drop gun will be perfectly clean (carried in a plastic bag) with only a token fingerprint or two made by briefly pressing it into the dead hand.
The most essential action here is to make sure that the police who "fixed" the crime scene is not allowed to "investigate" itself. An external investigation, by an independent team, is necessary (like the FBI.)
If the thug cop was on full auto with a MP-5, that's about half of a second burst, the old guy didn't stand a chance.
Throw away gun?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.