SWAT Team - Member Charged With Murder

"The difference between the quasi-military and the civil policeman is that the civil policemen should have no enemies. People may be criminals, they may be violent, but they are not enemies to be destroyed. Once that kind of language gets into the police vocabulary, it begins to change attitudes."
- John Alderson, The Listener, 1985




From the Charlotte Observer Posted on Tue, Dec. 12, 2006. The italics and bold type are mine in an attempt to highlight the absurdity of the SWAT teams actions and thinking.

The raid follows an all too familiar pattern: a)SWAT team used unnecessarily to serve a warrant, b)SWAT team unnecessarily destroys private property, c)in this case SWAT team shoots an unarmed man (killing him), d)the original SWAT team accounts of what happened are lies. (note: it was the coroner who discovered that the bullets had penetrated something "probably the door" prior to Strickland being hit. Then SWAT's story began to unravel).


We should follow this case closely - it is directly "on-point" with the problem of paramilitarized (SWAT) police forces and most importantly - addresses the issue of accountability of the officers involved and the people responsible for sending out a SWAT team in the first place.

Nick

Ex-deputy indicted in death of student
PlayStation-case charge is 2nd-degree murder
MANDY LOCKE
(Raleigh) News & Observer

WILMINGTON - A former New Hanover County sheriff's deputy was charged with second-degree murder Monday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager accused of stealing PlayStation 3 video game systems, the district attorney said.

Cpl. Christopher Long, 34, was indicted in the death of 18-year-old college student Peyton Strickland, who was shot Dec. 1 when deputies and police from UNC Wilmington raided a house he shared with roommates.

Long mistook the attempt to break down Strickland's door for the blast of a gun, then fired the shots that killed Strickland, New Hanover District Attorney Ben David said in court Monday.

Long, dismissed three days ago, was part of a heavily armed unit of New Hanover County Sheriff's deputies who knocked on the door of the house Strickland and two roommates were renting at 533 Long Leaf Acres Drive in Wilmington.

Strickland went to the foyer, then looked back at his roommate and stepped back into the living room, where the young men were playing a video game like the stolen one the authorities had come to find, David said.


Noise mistaken for gunfire

Another deputy, peering at Strickland through three small windows in the door, took that as a sign that the 18-year-old Durham native was refusing to answer the door, David said.

The deputy then banged a battering ram against the door -- which the DA said Long, a deputy for 12 years, mistook for a gunshot. Long fired three times through the door. Two bullets struck Strickland, a Cape Fear Community College student, in the head and chest, eventually killing him, the district attorney said.

Long, a graying, stocky father of two, stood before a judge Monday afternoon and practically whispered the words "yes, sir" as the judge asked him whether he understood the charge facing him. Long stared straight ahead as David told the judge that Long's actions were reckless and that use of his weapon wasn't justified.

"No one else thought they were under attack," David said. David, however, did not release a report by the State Bureau of Investigation on the incident and vowed to not speak about the case outside court.

Two other deputies who had been placed on paid leave -- Larry Robinson and Greg Johnson -- have been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. They fired their weapons with Long and killed Strickland's dog, Blaze.

"This indictment is an important first step in holding accountable everyone responsible for Peyton's death, but it is only a first step," said his father, Donald Strickland, an attorney in Raleigh. "Still to be held accountable are those who put a SWAT team at the door of an 18-year-old college student who was unarmed."

Long waited all day in the New Hanover Courthouse, his attorney, Michael McGuinness, said Monday. But he did not get a chance to tell his side of the story, McGuinness said.

`Model deputy'

Long, a New Hanover County native, has taught law enforcement classes at Cape Fear Community College, McGuinness said. He was earning $43,323 a year as a full-time member of Emergency Response Team, a unit that he has helped lead, McGuinness said.
Long, who McGuinness said has received death threats, posted a $50,000 secured bond Monday evening.

New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey said Monday that Long had been a "model deputy." Causey said that his deputies refused to "abandon" Long and will raise money for him and his family for the holidays. Causey fired the 10-year veteran Friday.

UNCW police were expecting a high-risk situation Dec. 1 when they went to search for one of two stolen PlayStation 3 video consoles taken from Justin Raines, a UNCW student from Apex.

Internet photo a factor

An anonymous caller had pinned the robbery and assault on Strickland, roommate Braden Riley of Apex and another friend, Ryan David Mills of Durham.

After spotting an Internet photo of Mills, 20, smirking in a picture with two other boys and holding weapons, UNCW police feared Strickland and his buddies could be armed and dangerous, according to a search warrant.

They leaned on deputies from Emergency Response Team to secure a safe entry.

"The original crime was a violent offense," UNCW police chief David Donaldson said Monday. "We had information from a Web site that there were weapons inside the residence. Mr. Strickland was involved in a series of violent assaults."

Riley, 21, of Apex, and Mills, who is from Durham, have been charged with armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and breaking and entering a motor vehicle in the PlayStation 3 thefts.

They were arrested after the raid.

Riley was Strickland's roommate, while Mills lived at another residence.