Author Topic: Breaking - Houston Police Department responding to report of several officers shot  (Read 14528 times)

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Online Wingnut

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Offline thackney

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@Elderberry Thanks. I know some questions have been raised, and in light of possible confusion over the street name (Harding or Hardy?) for the raid, I'm glad to see they are at least investigating. We'll see what develops. The Houston Chronicle has said I have read my last free article, so I'm glad you posted what you did.

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Offline Smokin Joe

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Thanks!
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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

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Offline GrouchoTex

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At first, I was inclined to believe the HPD version.
As more is coming out, I'm not so sure anymore.

Online Bigun

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At first, I was inclined to believe the HPD version.
As more is coming out, I'm not so sure anymore.

I got some really bad vibes about it from day one.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

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Online Wingnut

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I got some really bad vibes about it from day one.

They should know by now. Accevato is stalling... My gut tells me they are burring more dead bodies than just the homeowners. Something is rotten in the Astrodome..
« Last Edit: February 08, 2019, 07:26:41 pm by The Ghost »
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Offline Smokin Joe

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I got some really bad vibes about it from day one.
Something smelled off from the start, once the details started trickling in.

No evidence supporting a dealer in residence except for some CI, and CIs have been known to get it wrong.

In a castle doctrine state, kick down the door dressed like hood rats (plainclothes, not uniforms), and shoot the dog--if the people inside can, they will mount a defense. Especially if they don't know it is the police.

Dealers would have marketable quantities of drugs, paraphernalia, and cash. None of those were mentioned as being found.
It took days to get analysis of the white powder, when they do it on "Cops" and "Live PD" in 5 minutes. You gonna tell me a drug raid team doesn't have a test kit? Someone could have been eating powdered mini donuts and watching TV--those leave white powder all over, especially on the coffee table around the bag.

The more I learn, the more this sounds like a screwup.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Fishrrman

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Bigun wrote:
"I got some really bad vibes about it from day one."

Yup.
This was "a bad raid" from the start.

Two innocent people are dead for defending their home against what they thought to be a home invasion.

Sorry for the cops who got shot, but they weren't acting in good faith.
(I stand behind that statement).

EVERYTHING the police did STINKS in this one.
And when the facts finally come out, that will be proven.

Offline GrouchoTex

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I heard on the radio today that everything is going to be investigated thoroughly.
He says they owe to the wounded officers and the family of the deceased.
Repeated that 4 weapons were found ( but didn't mention what they were, if they were legally purchased or stolen, etc.).
Related that 28 grams of weed and 1.5 grams of cocaine were found.
This appears to be more of a personal use situation, not a dealer.
He said nothing else.
Yep, something went dreadfully wrong here, and he is hearing it from the community.

Online Wingnut

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28 grams of weed?  That is less than an OZ.   

Boy they brought down the kingpin with that bust.  They must be so proud.
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Offline GrouchoTex

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28 grams of weed?  That is less than an OZ.   

Boy they brought down the kingpin with that bust.  They must be so proud.

Right, personal use, not bringing down the cartel.

Online Elderberry

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I heard on the radio today that everything is going to be investigated thoroughly.
He says they owe to the wounded officers and the family of the deceased.
Repeated that 4 weapons were found ( but didn't mention what they were, if they were legally purchased or stolen, etc.).
Related that 28 grams of weed and 1.5 grams of cocaine were found.
This appears to be more of a personal use situation, not a dealer.
He said nothing else.
Yep, something went dreadfully wrong here, and he is hearing it from the community.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HPD-officer-connected-to-deadly-raid-shootout-13598143.php
Quote
They also found two 12-gauge shotguns, a 20-gauge shotgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a second rifle — but no 9mm handgun described in the warrant.

No evil black rifles. Looks like a hunter's small collection.

Offline 240B

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The story changed. First, it was reported that they were serving a warrant. Later, it was reported to be a raid on a drug house. It is never explained why nobody had eyes on the house. If they were watching the house, they would have known only two people were home. Also, they could have simply waited for them to leave to go somewhere and simply pull the car over to take away the home advantage. The whole Ghestapo raid show was entirely unnecessary.

The amount of drugs found is so small, they could have easily have been planted (or not) to justify the raid.

The officers who were injured may 'recover' but that doesn't mean that they will not face lifelong debilitation. I would hate to find out that I risked my life and almost died over a blunt and a blow of coke.

This incident is the result of an incompetent, trigger-happy Police department which did not independently verify (with their own eyes on) information they received from an anonymous source. Instead, they went in shooting right off the bat. There is no indication that they ever gave the homeowners a chance to simply come out and surrender.
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
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Online Wingnut

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If the CI that the cops relied upon is smart, he would become invisible.
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Offline GrouchoTex

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If the CI that the cops relied upon is smart, he would become invisible.

True.
Today, I am left wondering if the CI even exist.
Demoralizing.

Online Elderberry

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 SCOTT HENSON QUESTIONS HOUSTON POLICE NARCOTICS RAID.
Eleven unanswered questions about the botched police raid in Houston

By Scott Henson Grits for Breakfast February 2, 2019

http://barkgrowlbite.blogspot.com/

Quote
Four officers were shot and two suspects and their dog are dead after a botched narcotics raid in Houston. Friends and family of the deceased say they were innocent victims. Obviously, I hope all the officers recover. But having watched this play out in the press for several days, Grits has questions.

Here's the background: According to the search warrant, police claimed they sent a confidential informant into the home who had assisted in 10 or more prior investigations, all of which had led to arrests and seizures. They searched the CI, gave him cash, and allegedly watched him go into the home in question. He came out with brown heroin in a bag, telling police he'd seen many other bags of heroin and a 9mm pistol. The officers placed the home under surveillance until they could get a warrant.

Problem is, they found no bags of heroin. There was no 9mm pistol. But when the narcotics unit (not a SWAT team) entered the home at five in the afternoon, announcing themselves as the battering ram broke the door down, there was an angry pit bull facing them that an officer immediately killed with a shotgun blast. At that, one of the homeowners returned fire, and an intense gunfight occurred.

The homeowners didn't have a 9mm, but they did have shotguns and a .357 Magnum, and they responded to the home invasion the way many gun owning Texas homeowners brag they would. Maybe they were violent criminals trying to kill police, but they could also have been unwitting victims of a lying informant who didn't understand who had broken down their door and shot their dog.

That's the first question: Were these people heroin dealers? The available evidence says no, and regrettably, they're not around to defend themselves against the allegation. Their neighbors told reporters they almost never had visitors, and their friends and family adamantly deny the charge. Cocaine was allegedly found on the scene, but one bag, at user levels. And the multiple bags of brown heroin and 9mm weapon alleged in the search-warrant affidavit were nowhere to be found.

So the second question is: Where did the informant get the heroin? Police claimed they followed best practices, searching the informant beforehand and watching him go in and out. The couple couldn't have moved it because police had the house under surveillance. And they'd have seen if there'd been enough customers for all the volume to deplete. So if the informant brought back heroin, where did it come from?

Third question: Is it plausible that this couple would sell smack to a CI sent to their front door whom they'd never met before? Something there doesn't add up.

Fourth question: Will the Conviction Integrity Unit at the Harris County District Attorney's Office now review those 10+ cases using this informant in the past? If he lied about this couple selling heroin, what else might he have lied about?

Fifth question: HPD claimed they raided the home for safety reasons because they knew there was a gun inside (even though they had bad information about that; there was no 9mm). But given the outcome, was it really safer? It was 5 p.m., so they were awake. Mightn't the outcome have been better if they'd just knocked on the front door?

Sixth question: Should police use "dynamic entry" to execute search warrants every time there's reportedly a gun in the home? There are probably guns in half the homes in Texas! Relatedly, if you're afraid someone might shoot at you when you break down their door, why not just wait outside for them to come out? The house was already under surveillance.

Seventh question: Were these narcotics officers sufficiently trained to perform a dynamic entry? There's a subsidiary question: why wasn't a SWAT team used? After his wife and dog had been killed, the husband, a Navy veteran with no criminal record, snuck out the back and opened fire on the officers from behind, the Houston Chronicle reported. This was a basic tactical error - someone should have been manning the back door. Also, such raids are frequently conducted pre-dawn to minimize the chance suspects will be awake and shoot back. This one was performed at five in the afternoon. So did these narcotics cops just not know what the hell they were doing?

Eighth question: Could they have raided the wrong house? The search warrant affidavit says police watched the informant go into the house and come out with drugs, then watched it until they raided it. But what if that's a lie? What if the informant merely told an officer the address of the house, and got it wrong? Otherwise, where is the heroin?

Ninth question: How much was the informant paid for this service? What is this person's background? How much was s/he paid in the past, and for what services? An officer vouched for the person in the search warrant affidavit, what was their relationship? It's okay to tell, the person can never be used as an informant again.

Tenth question: Chief Art Acevedo said neighbors thanked police for taking out a known drug house. But reporters interviewed every neighbor they could find and everyone said these were quiet people who seldom had visitors, loved animals, and kept to themselves. Why weren't those grateful neighbors corroborating the chief's claims to reporters?

Eleventh question: Why does Fox and Friends give union boss Joe Gamaldi a platform? The guy's a blowhard.

MORE: On Twitter, someone suggested another excellent question: "Who shot who?" It was said the wife was shot when she lunged for a downed officer's shotgun after her dog had been killed. Does that mean she was unarmed at the time and the husband did all the shooting? Were any of the police injured by friendly fire? Who shot who is an excellent question.
 

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Offline Drago

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An article on the topic that includes other "no-knocks" gone bad in Texas (see esp. the "Henry Magee" incident in 2013):  https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/a-no-knock-raid-in-houston-led-to-deaths-and-police-injuries-should-police-rethink-the-practice/
 

Online Elderberry

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HPD Chief Acevedo says narcotics cop committed likely crime by lying in affidavit for deadly raid

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-police-shooting-affidavit-confidential-13620120.php

Quote
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said an undercover narcotics officer involved in a deadly  botched drug raid will likely face criminal charges as questions about the case continue to emerge.

"There's a high probability there will be a criminal charge," Acevedo said Friday after a police affidavit into an ongoing investigation was filed raising questions about the integrity of the Jan. 28 drug bust.

"We will take as much time as it takes to get to the bottom of this," Acevedo said.

He said prior cases handled by Officer Gerald Goines will be reviewed, and the entire narcotics unit will face an "extensive audit" of their practices.

Houston police have been unable to find the confidential informant behind the drug buy that set off a deadly narcotics raid last month, according to the warrant affidavit signed last week.

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Offline Smokin Joe

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HPD Chief Acevedo says narcotics cop committed likely crime by lying in affidavit for deadly raid

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-police-shooting-affidavit-confidential-13620120.php

More at link.
A LOT more. (From the link above):

Quote
In the original warrant - the one used to justify the raid - Goines wrote that he watched the buy and, along with Bryant, identified the substance as heroin. But when investigators went back to talk to Bryant, he admitted that he'd actually retrieved two bags of heroin from the center console of Goines' car, at the instruction of another officer.
Things didn't add up...
We smelled a rat...
Pretty damning, that.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2019, 01:34:59 am by Smokin Joe »
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Online Wingnut

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The murdered two innocent people.  But no one will go to jail. 
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Offline Smokin Joe

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The murdered two innocent people.  But no one will go to jail.
So far, that's the way it looks. Maybe not 100% innocent, maybe they were and the evidence was planted after the fact. But definitely not actively dealing Heroin, or they'd have found some.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline 240B

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They either got the wrong address
or they got bad information
or they were all just Rambo gun nuts looking to make their bones for a medal. And they wound up getting several officers disabled, and two innocent civilians killed.

Or, all three are true.

No matter what they say or 'find', there was no reason at all to kill these two people. That is murder. The civilians just acted the same way any of us would have done, to defend from an armed invasion by unknown assailants.
You cannot "COEXIST" with people who want to kill you.
If they kill their own with no conscience, there is nothing to stop them from killing you.
Rational fear and anger at vicious murderous Islamic terrorists is the same as irrational antisemitism, according to the Leftists.

Offline Smokin Joe

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They either got the wrong address
or they got bad information
or they were all just Rambo gun nuts looking to make their bones for a medal. And they wound up getting several officers disabled, and two innocent civilians killed.

Or, all three are true.

No matter what they say or 'find', there was no reason at all to kill these two people. That is murder. The civilians just acted the same way any of us would have done, to defend from an armed invasion by unknown assailants.
That's most of the way it looks so far from here, too.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline corbe

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    I've lived in this State long enough to realize You don't f*ck with the Cops, learned that the hard way. 
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    I had it much better in Louisiana cause they were mostly non-existent, not so in my little German Town, small trade off.
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Online Elderberry

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Houston police officer in drug raid had previous allegations against him

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-police-officer-in-drug-raid-had-previous-13621276.php

Quote
Even before the deadly drug raid that left two civilians dead, Houston Police Officer Gerald Goines had a troubling history of allegations against him.

The undercover case agent in the Jan. 28 Pecan Park raid had been involved in multiple shootings, racked up a smattering of written reprimands, faced several lawsuits and is currently accused of fabricating a drug deal then lying about it in court to win a conviction against a man who has long maintained he’s innocent, according to a Houston Chronicle review of internal police records and court documents.

Through it all, the longtime narcotics officer consistently racked up glowing reviews and praise from supervisors who called his work “impressive” and wrote that he set a “good example for new officers in the squad,” according to police records. Last month, as Goines lay in the hospital after the gun battle, Chief Art Acevedo praised his courage, describing the 54-year-old sergeant as “strong as an ox” and “tough as nails.”

But on Friday, Acevedo offered a very different narrative. Now, he said, the veteran officer — who’s still in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to the neck — could face criminal charges after investigators realized they couldn’t find the informant reportedly behind the undercover buy used to justify the no-knock warrant.

Law enforcement experts say that’s indicative of a unit without sufficient oversight, where repeated complaints and lawsuits don’t lead to any apparent internal review.

“The number and type of incidents should be a red flag for any police organization to go back and look at exactly what happened in any and all of the incidents,” said Larry Karson, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown.

The Chronicle typically does not publish the names of undercover officers, but Goines was publicly identified Friday after the release of recent court documents.

Previous drug buys questioned

Previous allegations surfaced about Goines in at least two drug buys, with the officer accused of lying under oath and mishandling drug evidence, and questions arising about his use of a confidential informant.

One of those cases — which stems from a decade-old drug bust — is still winding its way through the appeals process, as attorneys for 63-year-old Otis Mallet argue that he’s innocent and was wrongfully convicted as the result of the case agent’s alleged misconduct.

The 2011 conviction stemmed from a drug bust three years earlier, when Goines met up with Mallet’s brother at a house on Danube Street for an undercover buy. Goines planned to make a crack bust with $200 of police money, which he allegedly handed over to Mallet’s brother, Steven, according to court records.

Afterward, he said, he watched the man go over to Mallet, who plucked something out of a can in his truck and handed it over in exchange for the cash. Then Steven returned with the score: a quarter of crack, records show.

Goines was the only witness to the alleged deal. After he drove away, backup officers swooped in to make the arrest, seizing a can containing crack cocaine from behind the house next door. When the case made it to trial, Goines testified in court that he watched Mallet take the can from his truck and put it by the neighbors’ house while police were arresting his brother.
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