Apparently I never found the additional info I was waiting on (particularly the court docs) and forgot about it. I'll throw the meat of the pertinent comments below (eh...no way to cherry pick...I'll put the whole thing below. The latter part has the meat about 'informant/snitch'...the rest elaborates):
Deceased Burleson County Deputy whitewashed in Liberal Press
A past staunch defender of LEO, I find myself 'tripping the rift' the past few years. This recent case, posted on FR here and here, has found a Press to evolve to a horrible political bent to whitewash a Deputy's tragic death. Worse, what began as a complex case involving No-knock Warrants, Castle-doctrine, Self-defense, Death of a Law Enforcement Officer became grossly skewed. I know I'm 'sticking it out there' to get stomped, but I'm going to outline my views on this for clarity, first summarizing some of the 'propaganda'.
The case began with posting of this story on AP: Suspect in custody for Texas officer's murder. It was very, very scant on details and only mentions "team of deputies".
Some articles chose to embellish the drama by posting totally-unrelated images, such as this by Forbes
Skipping forward, perhaps the most detailed journalistic account was found here: Man Charged With Killing Burleson County Deputy No Billed by Grand Jury (Hat-tip 'Free in Texas for also finding that detailed article & posting it here). But it is still lacking in a summary of all the details.
However, the prior article was from a 'local' source in an adjacent County in Texas: KBTX.com, of Bryan College Station, TX. Here is the Associated Press-sourced article the following day: Man Charged With Killing Burleson County Deputy No Billed by Grand Jury. Notable in the 'massaging' of the story are the liberal use of the term 'Peace Officer', emphasis of the 'Statutory Limit' of "5 pounds" (“Possession of Marijuana more than 4 oz. but less than 5 lbs.”) of marijuana while omitting the fact that only "2 six-inch potted plants and seeds" were found, allegedly with 8 more 'seedlings' in a closet under grow lights. Ironically, that latter/little-noticed detail was also reported by a local source, TheEagle.com of Bryan-College Station, Texas: Grand jury declines to indict man on capital murder charge in deputy's death, and elaborated with additional detail here: Attorney: Marijuana plants seized in fatal raid were mostly seedlings
Dick DeGuerin, Magee’s attorney, said investigators found two 6-inch marijuana plants, seedlings and firearms that belonged to Magee or his family members.
Contrast that with the Texas Rangers' widely-publicized finding of "a sophisticated marijuana grow operation".
Adding "while in possession of a deadly weapon, a third-degree felony. Conviction on a third-degree felony charge is punishable by from two to 10 years in state prison" makes the case all the more ominous. Illegal, yes. But that's not the point.
Even the Daily Mail article linked here at FR omits the mention of SWAT and uses the term 'Peace Officer':
"Renken, the district attorney for Burleson County said there is not enough evidence that Mr. Magee knew that day that Peace Officers were entering his home"
The Daily Mail article also uses the oft-used phrase of late to replace the term 'SWAT':
A local grand jury declined Wednesday to indict Henry Goedrich Magee for the December death of Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders, who was part of a group of investigators executing a search warrant for Magee's rural home.
I would like to direct Freepers to the article for the Memorial Service for Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders: Burleson County Sheriff's investigator laid to rest
Embedded with that story is this photo
Exactly who is that a picture of? Why isn't the much-used media distribution used, like this
Ok. Maybe the first photo was a file photo, right? Then watch the video here and make that statement. That first photo is Sowders in full-battle-dress, as he and his team likely were the night of the raid. Not 'Peace Officers' serving a warrant: Heavily-armed SWAT Team on forced-entry takedown.
Ok. Stating the obvious for summary: 1. Sgt. Sowders led a 7-member Burleson County Sheriff's SWAT Team to serve a no-knock Warrant.
2. Sgt. Sowders is killed during the 'raid' by .308 rounds from a weapon (AR-10?) fired by Magee.
3. Texas Rangers arrived and found a .223-caliber rifle, .308-caliber semi-automatic rifle, and a shotgun belonging to the defendant, all legally-owned. A handgun found inside the trailer belonged to his Mother, also legal. A 2nd handgun was found in a truck belonging to his sister.
4. Also found were 2-6" marijuana plants, seeds, 8 seedlings (or cuttings) and growing paraphernalia.
But I must digress. The point of my post isn't just the propaganda, but the cause of this Deputy's death that's being totally missed/ignored by all that I can find...
Case in point in this quote from the KBTX.com article:
In the process of executing that search warrant, Sowders was shot and killed. The Burleson County Sheriff's Office says the search warrant was issued after an informant claimed Magee had stolen guns and illegal drugs inside his mobile home. The informant had been arrested days earlier, but said he had been in Magee's home as recently as the day of his arrest and saw the drugs.The main issue here, in my humble opinion, is the 'Informant'. Also known as a 'Snitch'.On December 13th, court documents show an informant told a Burleson County Sheriff's investigator he saw 12 to 15 marijuana plants growing inside Henry Magee's home on County Road 278 near Somerville.
According to the informant, Magee was a known dealer who had grown drugs in his home and, quote, "supplies numerous people around the Snook area with marijuana." The informant also claimed he saw rifles, along with a handgun that had "Washington County Sheriff's Office" etched on top, possibly a weapon stolen in a home burglary months earlier.
Here is a very good outline of how 'Snitches' are used in the War on Drugs: Frontline, "Drug Laws and Snitching: A Primer" (aired 1/12/1999); I highly recommend reading it if you didn't see the original story.
In fact, the Dwane Johnson movie, 'Snitch' was an apt portrayal of the abuse of these laws and perversion of the intent of getting a suspect to flip & provide valued 'information' (coersion). I tried & failed to find any web links to Court documents on Magee's case.
Besides this badly-referenced article (making the only reference to finding 10 plants, scales & packaged marijuana, plus 5 rifles and 2 handguns), interpolating news reports: 1. All weapons were legally-owned by Magee.
2. 2-6 inch plants do not a dealer make, let alone he was charged for "possession" of >4oz, not Distribution.
3. The only weapons charges are the dunce act of possessing guns with 'illegal drugs', not possession of stolen property (the alleged stolen gun).
4. Magee's Bond, initially at $1 Million, is now set at $150,000.
Result: NONE of the informant's information was accurate, save for the simplified 'pot' & 'guns'
Did anybody else catch the fact that the Rangers found 2 rifles "outside near a tree" that were logged as evidence, later found "to belong to officers on the scene"?