imported post
Hawkflyer wrote:
LEO 229 wrote:
...SNIP
LEO on LEO shooing is a little different but that is all I can give you at the moment.
Maybe Civilian can scan the net for me and find something.
There have been citizen shootings of LEOs that have been ruled justified based on circumstances. I will have to dig a while to find any possible cites. SNIP...
EDIT: I could not find actual links, but here are a few cases.
In 2003, Muncie, Indiana's Jillian King was prosecuted for felony criminal recklessness when she shot at SWAT team members after she looked through the window and saw what she thought was a burgler prying open her door. The SWAT team was raiding King's home after finding traces of cocaine in the car of another resident at the address. They were dressed in black masks and camouflage. King had been robbed at gunpoint months earlier. A jury deadlocked, neither convicting her, nor acquitting her.
In 1989, police in Titusville, Florida raided the home of 58-year-old Charles DiGristine, a retired painter. As a flashbang grenade detonated near the front door, DiGristine's wife screamed, and he ran to his bedroom to get a handgun. An officer in dark clothing and a black mask charged the bedroom, where DiGristine shot and killed him. Police raided on information from an anonymous informant that the house was being used by armed drug dealers. They found a small amount of marijuana belonging to DiGristine's son. Nevertheless, DiGristine was charged and tried for first-degree murder. A jury acquitted him.
On October 12, 1995, police in Topeka, Kansas conducted a 2:50am raid on the home of Stephen Shively, whom they suspected of dealing marijuana. After battering down an outer door, Shively awoke as police were working to break down the inner door to his apartment. Shively would later tell a court he felt his life was in danger when he grabbed a gun and fired at the figures he saw through a crack in the paneling around his door. His bullet struck and killed officer Tony Patterson. In pressing murder charges, prosecutors claimed that Shively -- who had called 911 during the raid -- intentionally engaged in a gun battle with police to protect the 12 ounces of marijuana he had on hand. A jury acquitted Shively of murder, but convicted him of aggravated assault and charges related to the drugs found in his possession. The judge sentenced him to 3 1/2 years in prison, taking care to note that Shively didn't fit the description of "a drug lord with horns and fangs." In 1998, a judge released Shively after he had served 2 years and 7 months of his sentence. In 1999, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled the search warrant officers used to raid Shively's apartment was unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the Topeka Police Department awarded six officers Medals of Merit for their actions the night of the Shively raid.
