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5 police officers shot in Houston, TX.

cr0w

Old Member
Pretty big story here in H-town right now. Seems two officers are in critical condition with gunshots to the neck, the other three are stable. Hoping for the best.
 

iconmaster

Banned
Two suspected drug dealers were killed. I'm having a hard time being too upset about them missing their chance at due process.

And how about this officer?

The most senior of the narcotics squad — the case agent — has been shot twice previously in the line of duty since joining HPD in 1984, once in 1992 and again in 1997. During the 1992 incident, he took a bullet to the cheek.
 

DiscoJer

Member
It actually sounds pretty sketchy to me.

Cops broke into the house, shot their dog. This got the home owner to pull a gun and shot the cop that did so (which frankly, is understandable, if someone broke into my house and killed my dog, I would be seeing red). Then the police shot and killed the two homeowners, one of whom was unarmed. My guess is the other than the one cop that got shot (for shooting the dog), the other cops were shot by cops by accident. I mean, how does the one homeowner who was armed with a revolver shoot 5 cops? He'd have to hit one with every bullet and not miss.

They didn't find any heroin, just pot and an unidenitifed white substance (which likely will not turn out to be anything).

The couple was in their late 50s and had no criminal record dealing with drugs, just a bad check for the woman. Certainly nothing that justified a raid like this.
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...rry-Family-of-man-killed-in-drug-13571054.php

The raid started around 5 p.m., when an undercover narcotics officer burst into the house with a shotgun and killed a pitbull that allegedly lunged at him, officials said.

At the same time, Tuttle ran around from the rear of the house with a .357 Magnum revolver and opened fire, hitting one officer in the shoulder.

When the shot lawman collapsed onto a sofa in the living room, a woman - later identified as 58-year-old Nicholas - reached over and allegedly made a move for his weapon, Houston police Chief Art Acevedo said Tuesday morning at a news conference at Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center.


A backup officer shot at Nicholas and hit her, but the shoot-out continued. In the end, four officers were hit, including a 54-year-old, who officials identified as the case agent who breached the door while the first officers entered the house.

Afterward, authorities recovered marijuana and a white powder - possibly cocaine or fentanyl - along with two 12-gauge shotguns, a 20-gauge shotgun, a 22-caliber rifle and a second rifle. It's not clear whether the couple may have legally owned them, and police didn't specify what quantities of the suspected drugs were recovered.


The whole thing, officials said, came about as the result of an undercover drug sale before the raid. In that instance, police allegedly bought black tar heroin from someone at the home. It's not clear if there were repeated sales or who the alleged seller was, but police said they first learned of the alleged drug den from complaints by neighbors.

Police did not recover any heroin on Monday.

To those who knew the long-time couple, it all came as a shock.

"I can't believe she's dead," Monique Caballero, a friend of the couple, said, as she sobbed on the phone. "They were private people. They stayed at home. They loved their dogs; they loved their animals."

Why is an undercover officer bursting in solo and opening fire here? That's asking for escalation. There's no reason why they should be performing a raid like that.

Otherwise, the ensuing gun battle doesn't sound very reasonable for law-abiding citizens. I'd like to see some body cam footage or audio where the police are properly identifying themselves, at least.

The couple look like they were on hard drugs, going by the photos in the news article.

If the white powder recovered is fentanyl, not much to be suspicious of on that front. Fentanyl is more commonly sold as heroin than heroin at the moment, to my knowledge.
 

DiscoJer

Member
This story has largely been forgotten except by those libertarian leaning, but basically there's nothing they turned up that showed they were drug dealers. They did find drugs at the scene, but just pot and a gram of cocaine and nothing to indicate they were dealers, just users

Also apparently what started this was not people complaining about them being drug dealers (as they obviously were not), but the deceased woman's mother, who was worried about her drug use

https://abc13.com/what-was-found-in-home-after-deadly-drug-raid-hpd-warrant/5127653/
 

cr0w

Old Member
One of the officers involved in planning and executing the raid has been relieved of duty, but there has been no explanation thus far.

Opinions here in Houston are increasingly leaning toward the raid being completely botched from every possible angle, and the couple who were killed were innocent of the charges they were facing. For all intents and purposes, plain clothes cops busted in without announcing they were, in fact, police officers, shot the dog and the homeowner returned fire. His wife reached for the downed officer (who still wasn't known to be an officer) to take his weapon, and she was shot dead. The man, with a six shot revolver, then chased the police out onto the porch, where he was shot dead.

I'm a strong supporter of our police and first responders, but this raid is looking increasingly bad. The sad fact is that seemingly no one really cares because it was an older white couple. There's no narrative worth exploiting.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
One of the officers involved in planning and executing the raid has been relieved of duty, but there has been no explanation thus far.

Opinions here in Houston are increasingly leaning toward the raid being completely botched from every possible angle, and the couple who were killed were innocent of the charges they were facing. For all intents and purposes, plain clothes cops busted in without announcing they were, in fact, police officers, shot the dog and the homeowner returned fire. His wife reached for the downed officer (who still wasn't known to be an officer) to take his weapon, and she was shot dead. The man, with a six shot revolver, then chased the police out onto the porch, where he was shot dead.

I'm a strong supporter of our police and first responders, but this raid is looking increasingly bad. The sad fact is that seemingly no one really cares because it was an older white couple. There's no narrative worth exploiting.
If this an accurate description, US cops should know citizens may fire back.

You got plain clothed cops busting in unannounced, and a population known to carry guns and fire back if provoked.

Cops should know better.

If I owned a gun and had it nearby and a bunch of big dudes busted down my door, my first reaction would be "WTF?!?!?! and grab my gun too". I'm not going to sit there and ask them to have tea over a 10 minute interview why they busted in.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This story has largely been forgotten except by those libertarian leaning, but basically there's nothing they turned up that showed they were drug dealers. They did find drugs at the scene, but just pot and a gram of cocaine and nothing to indicate they were dealers, just users

Also apparently what started this was not people complaining about them being drug dealers (as they obviously were not), but the deceased woman's mother, who was worried about her drug use

https://abc13.com/what-was-found-in-home-after-deadly-drug-raid-hpd-warrant/5127653/
Reason why it was forgotten is because as Crow said, it looks like a screwed up raid.

If this was a cops and robbers battle and a bunch of bank robbers gunned down cops and cops returned fire saving the day, every police dept would be holding their heads high as noble saviours of peace and take a day off to attend a funeral of a fallen brother.

When a bunch of cops mess up, the whole police community goes dead slient and the only time you hear about the police force is when lawyers get involved as the innocent bystanders sue.
 
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