CNN:

A police officer and a former officer pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid last fall. Another officer still faces charges in the woman’s death.

It wasn’t a botched drug raid. It was a criminal assault carried out by those entrusted to uphold the law. A few new (to me) details:

The charges followed a November 21 “no-knock” drug raid on the home of Kathryn Johnston, 92. An informant had described buying drugs from a dealer there, police said. When the officers burst in without warning, Johnston fired at them, and they fired back, killing her.

Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson disclosed Thursday that the officers involved in Johnston’s death fired 39 shots, striking her five or six times, including a fatal blow to the chest.

He said Johnston only fired once through her door and didn’t hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues, he said.

This case is a symptom of a disease. Hopefully, it will lead to a serious look at drug war tactics in this country. But I’m not holding my breath.

Posted in uncategorized on April 27th, 2007 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |