Via William of the Florida Masochist, an update on the Kathryn Johnston shooting story:
It was Fabian Sheats' third felony drug arrest in four months. But on the afternoon of Nov. 21, according to a police report, he was looking to curry favor, so he told officers they could find a kilogram of cocaine in a house at 933 Neal Street N.W.That encounter led police to the home of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly woman who lived alone behind burglar bars and kept a rusty revolver. When officers burst into the house just three hours after talking to Sheats, a shootout ensued that left the woman dead and three officers wounded. No cocaine was found.
Sheats' arrest report, made public Thursday, sheds new light on why officers targeted Johnston's home.
Police say they used Sheats' tip to direct a confidential informant to the Neal Street house, where he made a drug buy, leading them to conduct the raid. A man named Alexis White later came forward to say he is a longtime informant and police asked him to lie after the shootings and say he bought drugs at the address. Police will not say who the informant was.
Also in the article is the tale of the strange call Alexis White made to 911:
On the 911 tape police released Thursday, White said he was waiting for agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to pick him up on Nov. 22 when he was approached by Atlanta police. He got into the car with them, he told the operator, but jumped out when he talked to federal agents by cellphone and they told him not to get into the squad car."They came and picked me up they asked me about that killing yesterday," White told the operator. "But, ah, they tryin' to play it off. So ATF told me 'Don't get in the car with them.' By that time then, I was already in the car with 'em."
The operator sounded incredulous. "OK, so you're calling the police to say the police are chasing you?" she asked.
"Listen to me," the frustrated White responded. "I don't know who's on whose side; they're playing dirty," he said. "There's a lot of stuff going on."
Sure sounds that way.
(AJC login/pswd=nojuan@spamnot.net/nojuan.)
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Previous postings:
Atlanta No-Knock Death
Deadly Warrant II
The Kathryn Johnston Thanksgiving Open-House Thread
Death Warrant
yeah it sounds like a lot of BS goin on..
Posted by: csason at December 8, 2006 09:01 PMSaw that on Radly Balko's page... it's done gone past hip waders depth there now. Like Richard said, its going to be expensive.
Quite possibly we'll have some good legislation when its all over and done with and these so called 'No knock' home invasions will be stopped, permanently.