Columbia MO SWAT raide vid

[WillBrink]

Apologies if this topic exists, but on search, didn't find it. I was looking for a objective write up of the event, but so far, I have found the usual anti LE stuff. There's a vid of the raid at the site below, but as usual, vid fails to tell the full story. Anyone know the status of this event?

Drug raid inquiry is ongoing
Target questions tactics of SWAT.

By Brennan David

Monday, May 3, 2010

A man whose home Columbia police raided in February on a narcotics search warrant has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and is contemplating a civil action against the department for shooting his two dogs during the raid.

Jonathan E. Whitworth, 25, of 1501 Kinloch Court entered into a plea agreement with the state to drop charges of possession of marijuana and second-degree child endangerment for a guilty plea to possession of drug paraphernalia.

Investigators believed Whitworth was in possession of a large amount of marijuana and was considered a distributor, Deputy Chief Tom Dresner said in February. Police, who found a grinder, a pipe and a small amount of marijuana, shot two dogs upon entering Whitworth’s home around 8:30 p.m. Feb. 11.

SWAT team members encountered a pit bull upon entry, held back and then fatally shot the dog, police say. Officers said the dog was acting in an uncontrollably aggressive manner. A video of the raid shows that a shot was fired upon entry, but the pit bull was not wounded until later.

Whitworth was arrested, and his wife and 7-year-old son were present during the raid. Both his wife and child were living in the residence at the time, said Jeff Hilbrenner, Whitworth’s attorney. Dresner previously said that intelligence gathered before the raid did not indicate the child was in the home.

A second dog was shot in the leg but was not killed. The corgi is seen in the video and does not appear to be wounded. There is no indication when the dog was shot, and Dresner previously said he was unsure when the animal was wounded.

“Their focus right now is to get this behind them,” Hilbrenner said of the Whitworth family. “Obviously, this was a traumatic event for his wife and son. A final decision has not been made, but they are evaluating all of their options.”

Hilbrenner previously said the family was concerned with what happened and that they thought police actions were inappropriate.

After the arrest, Dresner said he believed SWAT team members followed protocol and was awaiting an Internal Affairs investigation. Investigations are conducted each time a weapon is used by officers, said spokeswoman Officer Jessie Haden.

The investigation is expected to be completed within the next two weeks and has been prolonged because a SWAT team member is out of town for training. Internal Affairs is conducting the review because the incident involved multiple shots and was inside an occupied residence, Haden said. This allows Internal Affairs sergeants to review the incident independent from the SWAT command.

The Whitworths have not filed a complaint with the department concerning the incident.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/...ry-is-ongoing/

[uanick]

that's pretty common place around my area for when they make entry to houses. pitts can be really dangerous dogs.

notice how they did not file a complaint and he pleaded guilty to the charges....

I think they just wanted press coverage

[10-7Alpha]

The Pit I understand.. Some actions I scratch my head over.

[lpstopper]

"Contemplating civil actions against the department." How about don't sell/possess enough dope in your house that it causes the police to knock in your door? How about don't put your wife and young child in the position to have to witness the police knock in your door and arrest daddy? It's not the police's fault that you chose to keep dope in your house. And yea I can understand the pit if it was aggressive, which dogs can be if strangers enter it's house, but the lil corgi may have been another story.

[WillBrink]

"Contemplating civil actions against the department." How about don't sell/possess enough dope in your house that it causes the police to knock in your door? How about don't put your wife and young child in the position to have to witness the police knock in your door and arrest daddy? It's not the police's fault that you chose to keep dope in your house. I second your thought's 10-7alpha.

Well that's why I asked about more back story here. Was the guy suspected of being a dealer and it turned out he was not? Did they have intel that there was a major stash and it turned out to be wrong?

"A man whose home Columbia police raided in February on a narcotics search warrant"

Based on some intel? Does this guy have a prior history?

"pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge"


So, either their intel was wrong or he was very lucky guy yes? If the former, - and I ALWAYS give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt in such situations - I can see "contemplating a civil action against the department for shooting his two dogs during the raid."

If the latter, I agree with you 100%. If you play, and your number comes up, then death of your dogs, trauma to your family, etc is on you. I'm just left with more questions then answers however to make the assessment. This vid, as you would expect, is all over the 'net as "police brutality" and I knew more objective info would be found here.

[lpstopper]

Well that's why I asked about more back story here. Was the guy suspected of being a dealer and it turned out he was not? Did they have intel that there was a major stash and it turned out to be wrong?

I would hope they had more evidence against him than simply a small amount of weed in order to conduct a warrant with the SWAT team. It is possible that he had a large amount at the time of their Intel gathering but by the time the warrant was served he had gotten rid of it. Im basing my reasoning on this simply by the fact that they used SWAT which is usually used for higher risk situations. Maybe the guy had serious previous charges that would label him as a high risk more normal street officers to apprehend?

[WillBrink]

I would hope they had more evidence against him than simply a small amount of weed in order to conduct a warrant with the SWAT team. It is possible that he had a large amount at the time of their Intel gathering but by the time the warrant was served he had gotten rid of it. Im basing my reasoning on this simply by the fact that they used SWAT which is usually used for higher risk situations. Maybe the guy had serious previous charges that would label him as a high risk more normal street officers to apprehend?

Those are the questions/thoughts I had too, and perhaps the answers will emerge after the investigation.

[bsd13]

This is a good way to get my blood boiling.

They broke in to a man's house, killed one of the family pets, wounded another, traumatized a 7 year old kid all in the name of wiping out the evil weed. Thank goodness they got "a few grams" and some paraphernalia (a bowl with resin in it) out of this hoodlums wicked hands.

I wonder if the officers involved in the operation would say it was worth it. God, I hope not.

[Bearcat357]

This is a good way to get my blood boiling.

They broke in to a man's house, killed one of the family pets, wounded another, traumatized a 7 year old kid all in the name of wiping out the evil weed. Thank goodness they got "a few grams" and some paraphernalia (a bowl with resin in it) out of this hoodlums wicked hands.

I wonder if the officers involved in the operation would say it was worth it. God, I hope not.

You ever think he sold the dope before they got there......?

[bsd13]

You ever think he sold the dope before they got there......?

Yes I did consider that, but why didn't they find anything that would be involved in distribution? Scales for example, or large amounts of cash. 3 months later and they haven't found anything, or evidence of it. If they had they'd make it public to get their town to shut the hell up.

Did you ever think that they were just plain wrong and made a terrible mistake?

[mtxpro752]

So BSD13, you're saying it was the officers fault? If he wasn't involved in illegal drugs (in any amount) the cops never would have been there.

You sir are a moron.

[bsd13]

So BSD13, you're saying it was the officers fault? If he wasn't involved in illegal drugs (in any amount) the cops never would have been there.

You sir are a moron.

I don't blame the officers, they just follow orders. Someone higher up the food chains sends word down and they do as they are told. That person must be held responsible. It might make others in the same position think twice.

They should not have been there. Period. It was at best a misdemeanor charge. Someone royally screwed up and it wasn't the resident. They could have picked him up at any point and time but instead decided to send a team to break-in. The fact that he had something illegal doesn't suddenly negate that mistake.

[Bearcat357]

Scales for example,

Not every doper uses scales....this isn't TV.....

or large amounts of cash.

Dopers trade for stuff.....they just don't use cash.....once again, this isn't TV....

Did you ever think that they were just plain wrong and made a terrible mistake?

Nope....as I know folks like you..... You think that we are all a bunch of JBTs.....don't you....??

[bsd13]

Nope....as I know folks like you..... You think that we are all a bunch of JBTs.....don't you....??

You know folks like me? What exactly do you think you know about me? Have we met? Did you know me coming up? Where have we met before?

As for being jack booted thugs - I think sometimes "you" forget "you" serve the people and not the government agencies that are there to serve the people as well. I think sometimes "you" forget that "your" powers are granted by the people and not by the government at any level.

So do you think I think you're all a bunch of JBTs?

Just have to add: I love how 9 out of 10 times police will first assume fellow officers didn't do anything wrong. Only in the face of overwhelming evidence does the benefit of the doubt go to the citizen. Why is that?

[Bearcat357]

So do you think I think you're all a bunch of JBTs?

From your prior posts.... yeap.....

[bsd13]

From your prior posts.... yeap.....

For example?

Edit: Nevermind, if you actually have any examples pm them to me. The thread's about one departments actions not your personal philosophy on me.

[Bearcat357]

For example?

Edit: Nevermind, if you actually have any examples pm them to me. The thread's about one departments actions not your personal philosophy on me.

Plenty of examples of you not liking the Po-Po on here.....including your posts in this thread that CPD had to do something wrong in this case.....

Further, back to the subject, what type of LE experience do you have with Dopers...? How do you know that these fine, upstanding pillers of the Columbia, MO Community didn't make a swap of services.....such as dope for working on a car...? Dope for the dogs...? Dope to go rob/steal/beat/kill someone at a later time/date/location....?

Some of us have been around dopers for a while....especially ones in MO...and know what they do....

You haven't a clue...

Go back to your hole......and play with your snakes.....

[11b101abn]

I don't blame the officers, they just follow orders. Someone higher up the food chains sends word down and they do as they are told. That person must be held responsible. It might make others in the same position think twice.

They should not have been there. Period. It was at best a misdemeanor charge. Someone royally screwed up and it wasn't the resident. They could have picked him up at any point and time but instead decided to send a team to break-in. The fact that he had something illegal doesn't suddenly negate that mistake.

Break in, huh? Really?

[Bearcat357]

Break in, huh? Really?

Yeap....and of course, CPD was wearing black jackboots and Nazi armbands as they were going into harass these poor, uneducated, innocent people.....

[ThinBlueLine05]

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/...swat-incident/

Here's our Police Chief's opinion on the incident. While I agree with him that they shouldn't have waited so long to execute the warrant, I also don't know the reason behind why they waited. The video from the helmet cam is pretty interesting though.

[wakeislander]

i see no benefit to video taping swat operations.

[LINY]

Apparently both of the dogs were caged. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what I heard. It seems pretty poor that you have one bullet miss the target completely and you have a kid in the house, and the most you get is a tiny bit of weed and lose a lot of public confidence. Definitely not worth it for the PD in the end.

[bigdog904]

this whole thing seems like overkill to me. A SWAT team raid on this guy, all they said was that they didnt know the kid was there or would be there. Well, who did they expect to be there ? A bunch of guys with guns waiting to take on Cops ? Maybe so, but if so where were these guys ?Sounds like no narcotics were found. Sounds like they either missed big time, which I would also blame on bad recon/surveillance. If there was no surveillance then their boss sucks at his job.

I think regardless of whether your an officer or joe public you need to look at things from both sides.

[ComicGuy]

This whole thing seems like overkill to me. A SWAT team raid on this guy, all they said was that they didn't know the kid was there or would be there. Well, who did they expect to be there? A bunch of guys with guns waiting to take on Cops? Maybe so, but if so where were these guys? Sounds like no narcotics were found. Sounds like they either missed big time, which I would also blame on bad recon/surveillance. If there was no surveillance then their boss sucks at his job.

I think regardless of whether your an officer or Joe Public, you need to look at things from both sides.

Spoken like a student, with no experience whatsoever. Put on a badge for a while, then your comments might be worth listening to.

[ComicGuy]

Apparently both of the dogs were caged. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what I heard. It seems pretty poor that you have one bullet miss the target completely and you have a kid in the house, and the most you get is a tiny bit of weed and lose a lot of public confidence. Definitely not worth it for the PD in the end.

So...because you heard that the dogs were caged, then it must be true.