SWAT Team in Coumbia, MO raid house and kill their dogs

[mizzwanned]

I ran across this video today and I can't believe I saw what I did. A SWAT team in Coumbia, MO raid the house of a guy suspected of being a drug dealer. What they do is kill his innocent dogs that were completely not aggressive and were actually gated up in the kitchen. And worse a little 7 y.o boy was there and saw the whole thing. Talk about traumatizing!
I am appalled and shocked, it was completely unnecessary for these innocent dogs to get killed. Just hearing the one dog cry out in pain had me tearing up.
WARNING-A bit graphic. You don't see it happening but you can hear them getting shot at.

YouTube - Columbia Mo SWAT Raid 2/11/2010. Cops...

[shamrocks]

That was horrific to watch. I cant believe that they would storm that place with a child in the home. What is there was a shootout and a bullet hit the kid. I feel that is was handled all wrong. They shot a pit-bull that died and wounded a corgi and the man got charged with a misdemeanor. This was a little excessive force. What the heck was the corgi going to do besides bite their ankles.

[lil fu fu girl]

Outrageous, but unfortunately very believable in todays society.
Welcome to the New America!
Our rights are slowly eroding away, while "sheeple" keep standing by their government without questioning their actions.

Last month, a 75 year old librarian was arrested by the FBI, for handing over the FBI's letter of intent to her 70 year old assistant, to read for her! Obviously, they had made an enormous mistake, and only under media attention did they release the two.....

[motomomma317]

It is indeed very sad. These guys go in trigger happy. Something moves and bam.
Even as a criminal he has his rights. Granted I want drug dealers off the streets but not at the cost of any deaths or injuries even to animals.

These guys didn't seam to even care that they sealed an animals fate. The one guy clearly states on tape forget the dog.

Not to mention this poor traumatized sleeping boy had to go thru this entire event.

In the long run it seams the man was not even charged with a felony the amount of drugs in his home didn't even amount to enough to charge a felony... And... as a follow up the only thing the police dept. and mayors office had to say was, they served the warrant to late to find the drugs. Not that it was sorry for killing a dog or scaring a poor child. Oh and the drugs in question. Marijuana. Sure its a drug but on the scale of 1-10 its a 1.

Oh and I should also point out that in news reports its stated that the small dog was shot first in the paw. Thats who you herd screaming in pain. then they shot the pit bull several times after they said it attacked a swat officer...( who from what I could see had more protective gear on then needed.) It's also rumored that the Pit bull was in a cage at the time...

They also based the facts on a informants info not actual visual transactions. So the warrant was based on hear say. And not solid evidence.

[ARCHIE]

OMG. This country is in such a bad way. Morales seem to be a thing of the past Those poor dog's and child.

[Robin Lodal]

Ok... so this is the first time I have heard of this and any of you who are not a police officer (or part of a police family) would not understand. I do not know exactly what happened in the kitchen (with the dogs) but I do know that when my husband is in the field and he even feels slightly threatened (aggressive dog, growling, nipping, lunging forward, etc) and their well being is at stake they will eliminate the dog. My husband is an animal lover and he has not had to do this but I know several officers that have. Its not ok nor typical for them to just shoot the suspect's animals. And you may think the Corgi could not have "done a number" on someone but think again. I know some officers who get bitten by small dogs (chihuahuas, yorkies, etc) all the time. Not that they will do the same damage as a large dog, but there can still be damage. If there is an aggressive dog they ask the owner to restrain them before they are even an issue but in this instance (with the search warrant) - that was not an option...

Now... for the comment on the kid being present. The parents should have thought about dealing drugs and breaking the law if they did not want their kids to see Mommy/Daddy going to jail. My hubby does drug raids (he is a K9 officer) all the time and there are kids present. It makes me angry and sad that the kids have to see it and that the parents care more about dealing drugs than to be a good example. Police officers are trained to handle these kinds of situations and they are taught not to use gun fire unless absolutely necessary. I don't know, I think its absurd to try to only do a bust w/o a child being present because that is where they live and you need to make sure you can catch the suspect home. I guess where I LIVE "in this world" and my hubby is doing raids more often now.... its unrealistic to not have kids home. Very sad but true. This is sad consequence of Mommy and Daddy breaking the law. Whenever my hubby goes on a raid, I always ask if children are involved (in the home at the time) and more often than not, they are. This is one of the reasons we are now foster parents (although we do not take any local children).

I will go on to add that I will be the first one to tell you or anyone else that if at ANY TIME my hubby feels as though his life is in danger, he comes first. PERIOD. His job is to protect and serve and he is the most service oriented person I know.

Again, I don't know anything about this incident but I can only speak from personal experience.

*stepping off soap box now*

[lil fu fu girl]

Originally Posted by Robin Lodal

Ok... so this is the first time I have heard of this and any of you who are not a police officer (or part of a police family) would not understand. I do not know exactly what happened in the kitchen (with the dogs) but I do know that when my husband is in the field and he even feels slightly threatened (aggressive dog, growling, nipping, lunging forward, etc) and their well being is at stake they will eliminate the dog. My husband is an animal lover and he has not had to do this but I know several officers that have. Its not ok nor typical for them to just shoot the suspect's animals. And you may think the Corgi could not have "done a number" on someone but think again. I know some officers who get bitten by small dogs (chihuahuas, yorkies, etc) all the time. Not that they will do the same damage as a large dog, but there can still be damage. If there is an aggressive dog they ask the owner to restrain them before they are even an issue but in this instance (with the search warrant) - that was not an option...

Now... for the comment on the kid being present. The parents should have thought about dealing drugs and breaking the law if they did not want their kids to see Mommy/Daddy going to jail. My hubby does drug raids (he is a K9 officer) all the time and there are kids present. It makes me angry and sad that the kids have to see it and that the parents care more about dealing drugs than to be a good example. Police officers are trained to handle these kinds of situations and they are taught not to use gun fire unless absolutely necessary. I don't know, I think its absurd to try to only do a bust w/o a child being present because that is where they live and you need to make sure you can catch the suspect home. I guess where I LIVE "in this world" and my hubby is doing raids more often now.... its unrealistic to not have kids home. Very sad but true. This is sad consequence of Mommy and Daddy breaking the law. Whenever my hubby goes on a raid, I always ask if children are involved (in the home at the time) and more often than not, they are. This is one of the reasons we are now foster parents (although we do not take any local children).

I will go on to add that I will be the first one to tell you or anyone else that if at ANY TIME my hubby feels as though his life is in danger, he comes first. PERIOD. His job is to protect and serve and he is the most service oriented person I know.

Again, I don't know anything about this incident but I can only speak from personal experience.

*stepping off soap box now*

While I can empathize with you for being part of the "police" family, I do not think that is the issue that concerns most Americans.
What concerns me in particular are the amount of raids on homes where nothing was ever found, or was there in the first place; and then the horrible consequences that have happened.
I guess my query is, "Where is the line drawn where a police mans rights come before those, that he has supposedly sworn to "Serve and Protect"?
Is his right to protection any more important than those that pay his salary?
Do not take this wrong, I am all for police protection and
I do believe in the police concept; in that they should be protecting the population from those who intend to harm us, however drug enforcement is a concept gone wrong.

In Arizona a swat team broke into a 73 year old Alzheimers patients house and burned it to the ground with one of their grenades.

The New York police broke into a disabled nurses house and proceeded to jail both her and her husband because a plumber had informed the police that he smelled drugs in the house.

In Annapolis they broke into a house, launched a concussion grenade, kicked the homeowner in the groin, all before realizing they had the wrong house. ( These are only a fraction of recent violations on an unsuspecting public)

Is spending BILLIONS of our tax dollars supporting the DEA really worth it.....or a more logical question...Is it really keeping the drugs off the streets? I think if we ask the families who live on the Texas /Mexican border, or any of the families in the above situations they would answer a resounding No. Why keep pumping money into a situation that is not working? Especially when that money could be used for educational purposes. Our schools are ranked below almost all of the other industrialized nations, and yet we continue to fund these organizations that are not producing positive results.

So, while I respect your husbands career choice as admirable and profoundly honorable, as well as his dedication to protecting and serving others; I strongly question the logic and intentions of the others who enact and enforce laws that contradict the basic rights of the people that they have sworn to serve and protect.

[Britster]

OMG, that was HORRIBLE. I can't even imagine. Totally NOT necessary to shoot the dog(s). Ugh. That makes me sick. I don't care WHAT the owner did... the dogs were completely innocent. IMO, that's no different than shooting a young child for no reason, especially if the dogs were behind a gate in another room. Especially because the guy was not being difficult with the cops, he wasn't resisting arrest, he was cooperating for the most part.

When I was 10 yrs old, 2 cops came to my house and HANDCUFFED and arrested my dad... I was terrified. It was just me and him there and the cops were all ready to send me off to social services when my mom lived right down the street. My dad was trying to explain but they wouldn't even listen. Do you know WHY he was arrested? Our nosy neighbor had sent in over 50 complaints about our dog barking... over 50!!! They couldn't just come knock on our door and politely ask us to stop the dog from barking which she didn't even do obsessively. So what happened was he missed courtdates because they were overlapped (he would have like 2 scheduled at the same time, etc, he had to go to oevr 50 court dates). Was it necessary for the cop to come knocking on our door, put my dad directly in handcuffs, off to prison (he spent 1 1/2 days there, stripsearched like a criminal)... are u kidding me?! UGH, I was so angry, it infuriates me thinking about it. Just unnecessary.

[amandawash]

Originally Posted by Robin Lodal

Ok... so this is the first time I have heard of this and any of you who are not a police officer (or part of a police family) would not understand. I do not know exactly what happened in the kitchen (with the dogs) but I do know that when my husband is in the field and he even feels slightly threatened (aggressive dog, growling, nipping, lunging forward, etc) and their well being is at stake they will eliminate the dog. My husband is an animal lover and he has not had to do this but I know several officers that have. Its not ok nor typical for them to just shoot the suspect's animals. And you may think the Corgi could not have "done a number" on someone but think again. I know some officers who get bitten by small dogs (chihuahuas, yorkies, etc) all the time. Not that they will do the same damage as a large dog, but there can still be damage. If there is an aggressive dog they ask the owner to restrain them before they are even an issue but in this instance (with the search warrant) - that was not an option...

Now... for the comment on the kid being present. The parents should have thought about dealing drugs and breaking the law if they did not want their kids to see Mommy/Daddy going to jail. My hubby does drug raids (he is a K9 officer) all the time and there are kids present. It makes me angry and sad that the kids have to see it and that the parents care more about dealing drugs than to be a good example. Police officers are trained to handle these kinds of situations and they are taught not to use gun fire unless absolutely necessary. I don't know, I think its absurd to try to only do a bust w/o a child being present because that is where they live and you need to make sure you can catch the suspect home. I guess where I LIVE "in this world" and my hubby is doing raids more often now.... its unrealistic to not have kids home. Very sad but true. This is sad consequence of Mommy and Daddy breaking the law. Whenever my hubby goes on a raid, I always ask if children are involved (in the home at the time) and more often than not, they are. This is one of the reasons we are now foster parents (although we do not take any local children).

I will go on to add that I will be the first one to tell you or anyone else that if at ANY TIME my hubby feels as though his life is in danger, he comes first. PERIOD. His job is to protect and serve and he is the most service oriented person I know.

Again, I don't know anything about this incident but I can only speak from personal experience.

*stepping off soap box now*

Thank you Robin. I can see where the outrage comes from, but most *normal* people have no idea what really goes on in those situations, and please be thankful for that.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by amandawash

Thank you Robin. I can see where the outrage comes from, but most *normal* people have no idea what really goes on in those situations, and please be thankful for that.

I do agree that most people don't even know the half of what goes on in alot of houses and different cases. I have an uncle who is a cop and he comes back with some crazy stories, BUT... we can clearly see this tape which is over 5 mins long... WHAT did those dogs do, or this human, to get his dogs killed and shot?? Couldn't there have been maybe 2 undercover cops that come into the house peacefully and put the guy in handcuffs and bring him to jail? No need to start shooting and killing peoples loving family pets.

The description reads:
This video shows a search warrant served by the Columbia Mo. police department. The cops bust in this guys house in the middle of the night and shoot his two dogs (one a pit bull that was caged in the kitchen and the other a Corgi) with children in the home. it turns out that rather than a big time drug dealer, this guy had a small pipe with some resin in it, a grinder, and what the cops here call "a small amount of marijuana" (meaning less than a few grams).

I'm usually on the police officers side... but I'm getting really annoyed with all these videos coming out in the last few years of police brutaility and people simply abusing their powers. It's rude and unnecessary. Now if a criminal/person is totally resisting, being an idiot, fighting back, etc... then yes cops need to protect themselves. But there is no reason to throw women or men to the ground when they haven't even done anything wrong and they supposedly innocent until proven guilty and all that crap.

[yorkieusa]

This article tells what happened. You can read the entire article at the link:

The attention has been much grimmer for the Police Department. On Thursday afternoon, Chief Ken Burton held a news conference with Mayor Bob McDavid at Columbia City Hall to combat what he repeatedly called the Internet's mixing of "fact with fiction."

"We're getting death threats from literally all over the world," Burton said, declining to release the names of the officers involved.

Burton sought to put an end to rumors that the pit bull was in a cage when the officers shot it. He also said the corgi had been shot in the paw by accident because it was next to the pit bull when the larger dog became aggressive toward the officers coming in the front door. The pit bull ran away and again threatened officers, who shot it, Burton said.

In the video, "you hear that dog (the corgi) screaming, and that isn't pleasant to listen to," Burton said.

As for Whitworth — who pleaded guilty on April 20 to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful use of drug paraphernalia and was fined $300 — Burton said a federal drug conviction and a history of combative arrests prompted the use of heavy police force. Burton regretted the department waited so long to execute the warrant.

"I don’t think we should have run it eight days later," Burton said. "We should have run it that day. We simply didn’t do it. So we own that, and we’re very sorry it turned out the way it did. None of those officers wanted to hurt that dog — or any dog, as a matter of fact — but it was an unfortunate situation.”

As McDavid stood next to him, Burton said he had changed department policy to conduct raids immediately after a search warrant is obtained. Burton said the department moved slowly in Whitworth's case because the SWAT team is made up of part-time members who hold other jobs within the department.

UPDATE: SWAT raid prompts Columbia police review of policies - Columbia Missourian

It has been stated that the delay in executing the search warrant allowed the deft time to get rid of the drugs in the house.

[jencar98]

Originally Posted by yorkieusa

As for Whitworth — who pleaded guilty on April 20 to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful use of drug paraphernalia and was fined $300 — Burton said a federal drug conviction and a history of combative arrests prompted the use of heavy police force. Burton regretted the department waited so long to execute the warrant.

.

So the police killed a dog, injured another, traumatized a little boy and for what - a drug paraphernalia conviction?

I'm sorry, normally the police have my support 100% and will continue to, but I fail to see, in this incident, good police work. Don't the have much bigger fish to fry?

[yorkieusa]

Originally Posted by jencar98

So the police killed a dog, injured another, traumatized a little boy and for what - a drug paraphernalia conviction?

I'm sorry, normally the police have my support 100% and will continue to, but I fail to see, in this incident, good police work. Don't the have much bigger fish to fry?

I'm not here to argue about it. Just placing some facts where they were previously missing. And yes, I'm sure what was previously in that house had been removed prior to their entering in the 8-day delay. As they said, there won't be any more delays in service of search warrants in the future. Columbia, MO isn't a big city and they won't ignore this element in their town.

[jencar98]

Originally Posted by yorkieusa

I'm not here to argue about it. Just placing some facts where they were previously missing. And yes, I'm sure what was previously in that house had been removed prior to their entering in the 8-day delay. As they said, there won't be any more delays in service of search warrants in the future. Columbia, MO isn't a big city and they won't ignore this element in their town.

I wasn't "arguing" at all and I appreciate you posting the facts. Also, I certainly don't expect them to "ignore this element in their town", but would hope nothing like this happens again.

[Robin Lodal]

Originally Posted by jencar98

So the police killed a dog, injured another, traumatized a little boy and for what - a drug paraphernalia conviction?

I'm sorry, normally the police have my support 100% and will continue to, but I fail to see, in this incident, good police work. Don't the have much bigger fish to fry?

To the comment on "Don't they have much bigger fish to fry?"... a crime is a crime. Period. Usually the smaller dealers will lead you to the bigger dealers. For example, my hubby will have informants who will purchase from a small dealer. When the small dealer is busted, a lot of times they will turn around and will work out a deal with the police to conduct a recorded buy from their dealer, etc and the cycle will go on... My hubby ended up busting a Mexican Mafia operation here recently that occurred like this (it went through a few hands - started with a small user who bought from their dealer, who bought from their dealer, etc). They ended up getting over 100lbs of marijuana and 50k in cash (plus property).

I can only speak from our experiences. I know that my hubby said that the longest they will sit on a search warrant is 48 hours but usually not that long. They just need to ensure they have a plan in place and enough manpower to conduct the search (there is MUCH more to a search than what you saw in the video). The faster you conduct a search warrant, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for. They have to go into every situation fully prepared because they do not who will have a weapon, exactly how many people are inside, etc They have to assume the worst but hope for the best.

My family just went to a police memorial yesterday to honor those law enforcement officers who were not able to come home from their shift to their families. I was proud to have my hubby standing up there with the other officers and I am proud of the work that he does so I will stand behind him 100%. I know that he is not the one in question here, but law enforcement in general. I will not make excuses for other officers b/c I do not know the facts but I truly believe unless you are a police wife you do not understand what they go through.