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SWAT team shoots mother and baby

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Started 4 years ago by Coremodels
Latest reply from Drew

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Coremodels
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LIMA, Ohio -- Hundreds of people turned out this weekend night for a candlelight vigil following the death of a mother of six children.
Tarika Wilson was shot by police when SWAT raided her home looking for her boyfriend, NBC 4Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Mike Bowersock reported.
WilsonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s 1-year-old son was in her arms when police opened fire. Wilson is dead, and her death has outraged much of the city.
Darla Jennings wants the Lima SWAT officer who shot and killed her daughter to be held accountable.
"All I'm asking for is justice. He killed my daughter,Ã¢â‚¬Â Jennings said.
Lima Police Chief Greg Garlock said SWAT officers entered Wilson's home Friday night to arrest Anthony Terry, Wilson's boyfriend, whom police suspected was selling drugs from the house.
Two pit bulls attacked officers, and shots were fired, police said. Shots hit Wilson, her 1-year-old son and the pit bulls.
http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-01-07-0001.html

Posted 4 years ago #
columbus native
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Why is it that these guys get so much training on how to handle these situations and a baby has to die because of a few dogs. How does a dog on the ground = a dead baby in it's mothers arms most likely 3 feet or more off the ground. Sounds like a way to agressive cop that was trigger happy and needs to be in jail at least for his actions. I know how they treat rapists in jail so even if he gets 6 months he will find justice one way or another.
This upsets the hell out of me!

Posted 4 years ago #
Coremodels
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columbus native wrote Why is it that these guys get so much training on how to handle these situations and a baby has to die because of a few dogs. How does a dog on the ground = a dead baby in it's mothers arms most likely 3 feet or more off the ground. Sounds like a way to agressive cop that was trigger happy and needs to be in jail at least for his actions. I know how they treat rapists in jail so even if he gets 6 months he will find justice one way or another.
This upsets the hell out of me!
Agreed, I'd like to see them at least charged with negligent homicide, not just get suspended and a slap on the wrist. This is an unforgivable mistake and careless behavior, no way around it.

Posted 4 years ago #
Ndcent
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:cry:

Posted 4 years ago #
bonniefide
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That is awful... someone who is specially trained should be able to tell what is dangerous & what isn't. Even w/hostage situations - if an innocent bystander is near someone waving a gun, you don't shoot the person waving the gun because you could hit the innocent bystander. :x
On the flip side - if I had 6 children, I would not be associating w/a known drug dealer, nor have pit bulls in my house. Hell, even if I didn't have 6 kids, I still wouldn't be doing that! Not that it makes the cops any less guilty, but it could have just as easily been the dog that attacked the baby or someone trying to get back at the boyfriend for something. That's not the type of house to raise kids in. I know people do it every day, blah blah... it's just sad. I get bent out of shape just seeing people smoke around their kids. :(

Posted 4 years ago #
drew

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These paramilitary style no-knock raids are just unbelievably irresponsible. Sad thing is, they happen all the time-
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/
http://www.theagitator.com/2006/11/25/context-for-kathryn-johnston/

Posted 4 years ago #
HeySquare
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bonniefide wrote On the flip side - if I had 6 children, I would not be associating w/a known drug dealer, nor have pit bulls in my house. Hell, even if I didn't have 6 kids, I still wouldn't be doing that! Not that it makes the cops any less guilty, but it could have just as easily been the dog that attacked the baby or someone trying to get back at the boyfriend for something. That's not the type of house to raise kids in. :(
+1
While there is clearly an issue with how the police handled this situation, it's a lose-lose situation for them. If they don't act, then they get criticized for not doing their job. If they do act, and something like this happens... its just tragic.

Posted 4 years ago #
Coremodels
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Just thought I'd clear up a couple things before the blameshifting goes too far...
1. Boyfriend is suspected of selling drugs...I know that whole innocent until proven guilty thing is tricky...but still. In fact, they were serving a search warrant not even an arrest warrant.
2. The police knew there were children in the house, and still acted irresponsibly...in fact, they raided at 8:00 at night, a time when the children would most likely not even be in bed.
3. Pit Bulls can, in fact, be family pets just like any dog. They're not tigers for christ's sake.
4. Making a decision to live with a boyfriend who is selling drugs just might have been made out of a life of abject poverty and otherwise inability to care for her family. She was, however, scheduled to start business classes at a community college today...

Posted 4 years ago #
BUTerrier
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Told my mother about this and her remark was that drugs are not that important.

Posted 4 years ago #
Ndcent
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While I too like to play devils advocate, I will never for police.

Posted 4 years ago #
drew

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HeySquare wrote While there is clearly an issue with how the police handled this situation, it's a lose-lose situation for them. If they don't act, then they get criticized for not doing their job. If they do act, and something like this happens... its just tragic.
The issue is not going after the guy, it's how they do it. Death is not an unexpected outcome of these raids, and the law is not going to give the innocent victims a fair shake against the police.
These are military style raids, executed by SWAT teams who are comprised of quite a few ex-military guys. They're executing 'no-knock' raids... busting down doors in the middle of the night. It's understood that the likely reaction to this from the occupants will be one of self defense. And if the occupants defend themselves (not knowing that they're dealing with police), they will be shot.
Which of course doesn't explain why a woman holding her child (can't defend yourself too much like that) was shot, and her child as well.
Why couldn't they just stake out the house and wait until the suspect leaves? Probably because that wouldn't give the SWAT teams enough work to justify their existence.
Take a look at some of the links I posted previously. This is happening all the time all over the country... and there are many cases where the SWAT teams actually bust in on the wrong address and kill people who have no criminal history/suspicions whatsoever!

Posted 4 years ago #
Coremodels
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From nine hours ago...
Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak.
The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves.
Someone, apparently the unidentified paramedic, called police, the sheriff's office and social services, eventually providing Leoniak with a report that generated the magistrate's court order to the sheriff's office for the SWAT team assault on the family's home in a mobile home development outside of Glenwood Springs, the father, Tom Shiflett, told WND
so yeah, a guy who served as a medic in Viet Nam had decided to treat his son's bump on his head himself...and ended up with a SWAT team busting down his door, weapons at the ready, to drag the kid to the hospital on a court order. Best part? Doctor released the kid immediately...nothing wrong.
Thank god they didn't have any family dogs to shoot.

Posted 4 years ago #
HeySquare
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Coremodels wrote Just thought I'd clear up a couple things before the blameshifting goes too far...
Get your panties out of a twist... I PREFACED my remark with "the police acted irresponsibly"
But here's my thing... as has been so graphically pointed out in the "response time on the shooting" thread, the police don't usually work any harder than they have to, and unless people are screaming and bloody, there usually isn't much action. That doesn't equate to me. You can't have it both ways.
And before you jump me for the pit bull comment, please remember that I am a dog advocate, have adopted my dog from a resuce, and one of my best friends has a pit bull. Who I've dog sat for. So don't start that crap with me. But I also know that ANY dog, pit bull or Buddy, can be a DANGER in the wrong hands. and with SIX kids and several dogs, you tell me how much attention and training those dogs were getting.
You know as well as I do that this situation is the result of a series of bad decisions on the head of multiple responsible adults. At any place along that series, someone could have made a better decision, one that would have saved the life of that kid... who was the only person who had no choice in where he/she was.

Posted 4 years ago #
drew

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HeySquare wrote You know as well as I do that this situation is the result of a series of bad decisions on the head of multiple responsible adults. At any place along that series, someone could have made a better decision, one that would have saved the life of that kid... who was the only person who had no choice in where he/she was.
You clearly don't understand the concept of 'innocent until proven guilty'. The police are supposed to protect the innocent, not kill them. There is no way in my mind that you can point any blame towards the victims or society... the cops blew it pure and simple.
And they're going to get away with it, scot free.

Posted 4 years ago #
BUTerrier
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I will tell you this. When my 60 year old, uppity, straight ticket republican voting, white mother, hates the police with more passion than a black panther, there is something wrong with them.
*looks for my nwa straight out of compton tape and plays #2*

Posted 4 years ago #
Coremodels
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HeySquare wrote You know as well as I do that this situation is the result of a series of bad decisions on the head of multiple responsible adults. At any place along that series, someone could have made a better decision, one that would have saved the life of that kid... who was the only person who had no choice in where he/she was.
No, I don't know any such thing. This was an over-aggressive police action, completely unnecessary, and it resulted in the death of an innocent woman and the maiming of an infant...period. She was accused of no crime, committed no wrong doing, and she was executed by a SWAT team while holding a baby who, at best, has 9 fingers from now on. Even IF the boyfriend was, in fact, selling drugs...that changes nothing I've just said. Considering the woman had children ranging from 1-8 years old and the police weren't responding to a dog bite, I don't even get why the pit bulls are an issue...clearly they co-existed just fine with the family...just not heavily armed men breaking down a door unexpectedly wearing ski masks and shouting.
Police have now stated they found crack and marijuana in the possession of the boyfriend...yep, that's illegal. Know what they didn't find? Guns.

Posted 4 years ago #
Coremodels
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p.s. if this story was about a drug dealer who drew a weapon on officers during a raid and was shot down in front of his wife and kids...you'd see absolutely no sympathy from me.
That's not what this story is though.

Posted 4 years ago #
Ndcent
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BUTerrier wrote *looks for my nwa straight out of compton tape and plays #2*
8)

Posted 4 years ago #
columbus native
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HeySquare wrote
bonniefide wrote On the flip side - if I had 6 children, I would not be associating w/a known drug dealer, nor have pit bulls in my house. Hell, even if I didn't have 6 kids, I still wouldn't be doing that! Not that it makes the cops any less guilty, but it could have just as easily been the dog that attacked the baby or someone trying to get back at the boyfriend for something. That's not the type of house to raise kids in. :(
+1
While there is clearly an issue with how the police handled this situation, it's a lose-lose situation for them. If they don't act, then they get criticized for not doing their job. If they do act, and something like this happens... its just tragic.
then again it's kind of like invading iraq. there is a right way and a very wrong way to handle these situations. They could have easily found this guy out of the house or in a simple traffic stop if he was that known of a criminal and they did enough of an investiation to get the warrant in the first place.
To a civilain person defense only stands up in an equal situation. Dog vs. Gun is not equal. The cops did wrong and had no nuts what so ever .

Posted 4 years ago #
BUTerrier
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The reason they do the no knock warrants is simple. they had a C.I. probably make a few purchases at the residence. Unless the C.I. was wired, and their was also possible survailance by a police officer of the transaction it is very hard to get a conviction. They do the no knock warrant in hope of finding drugs, and or weapons in the house, because when the drugs are found there convictions are much easier to get. If you are just going on the word of a C.I. who might not have been wired up, and a police officer might not have viewed the transaction it can be hard to get a conviction.

Posted 4 years ago #