Oh good grief. They didn't just BURST IN, and fire away. He had ample warning, his wife KNEW they were there, and unless she can't understand the english language OR read english, which seems to be an increasing problem in the US...she KNEW they were police. IN ADDITION, they beat on the door, had giant shields that read POLICE, had SIRENS, YELLED POLICE, and well ANYONE could have known that a giant group of men dressed in black with a SWAT van labelled SWAT, and wearing SWAT uniforms, and sirens, and swat gear, were in fact SWAT!

The soliders death is terrible of course, but he chose to greet this group of men while holding a high powered gun.

If you HAVE to blame someone, blame the people that are coming into Arizona from Mexico, drug cartels etc that are literally killed DOZENS of people every week, often more. Mass graves of 30 people found almost every other week, heads cut off, tunnels dug under the border, ENTIRE mexican towns fleeing their own homes from the drug lord of Mexico..and it's ALL spilling over the border. If you were SWAT out on a drug call, and after due dilligence, were met at the door by a man with a machine gun, what would YOU do?

Not positive of his heritage, but thank god he wasn't black or we'd be hearing how this was racist too.

Or maybe people who do not live along the US borders understand the USA is actually being FORCED to fight a war with criminals, well armed criminals, para military trained criminals who want drug $$$$ and we have to fight this war with civility, while our enemies kill officers, agents, civilians, you name it. Ranchers find decapitated Mexicans, raped women killed and tied to trees, etc, but as always people choose to look past the FACTS and make up their own alternate Universe, in order to pass judgement on the US or the Government, or Law enforcement, etc etc.

Oh and EMS were not let in because, well, the Police were there on a drug call, and were met at the door by a man with a machine gun. They HAD to clear the house before letting in anyone else, because the fact is, nobody knew who might be in the next room with guns, in the attic with guns, even hiding under the BABY CRIB, with guns, because that happens all the time.

Originally posted by TheArchaeologist

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If you HAVE to blame someone, blame the people that are coming into Arizona from Mexico, drug cartels etc that are literally killed DOZENS of people every week, often more. Mass graves of 30 people found almost every other week, heads cut off, tunnels dug under the border, ENTIRE mexican towns fleeing their own homes from the drug lord of Mexico..and it's ALL spilling over the border.

Unfortunatly we are finding out that these drug cartels are run by police on both sides of the border. So a uniform does not really mean that the wearer will obey any laws.

I think the day they start arming SWAT with tasers is the day there isn't a swat team anymore.

So let's summarize events:
1. ex-Marine returns home from the graveyard shift at his second job in a mine and plops down in bed.
2. SWAT rolls up to serve a search warrant. This is important: SEARCH warrant.
3. Wife, who lost two cousins not long ago to a violent entry, hears the beating on the door and wakes hubby up.
4. He tells her to get in the closet and lay down, grabs his rifle, and rushes to the front door.
5. As he rounds the corner, the SWAT team, who have not yet set foot in the door, open fire.
6. 71 rounds (but only 22 hits) later, they call for backup while the wife calls 911.
7. Medical unit arrives, but is kept outside waiting for an hour and a half.
8. The man is pronounced dead and the medical unit leaves without ever having so much as seen him.

Here are my points:
1. Obviously, there wasn't any surveillance of the premises, otherwise they would have known this.
2. If you assign a SWAT team to meet & greet, then it's because there is some suspicion that the premises contains volatile evidence and that the evidence will be destroyed by the individuals involved should a normal search warrant be issued.
3. Did the husband really have any other choice in the matter? He did EXACTLY what he was supposed to do. Respect him for his willingness to defend his family and his property with his life.
4. These are the actions of someone who expects there to be shooting, and is stepping up to the plate and protecting his family. Honor him for his level-headed direction to his panicking wife.
5. They never entered the door. I cannot count the number of knock-knocks I've done, and this screams one thing: incompetence. We've already established that this was a search warrant, not an arrest warrant, and the parameters surrounding the search warrant. So surprise and speed were absolutely vital, were this a legitimate search and seizure, but they took their bloody time entering. Absolutely incompetent.
6. Seriously? 71 rounds? The ONLY reason that you would fire 71 rounds is because you are (A) completely incompetent, know it, and want to make up for your lack of marksmanship by spraying so many rounds that you could have spelled out the guy's name in machinegun fire on the side of Safeway. Were I executing this knock, it would have been a *knock* followed by a rush, followed by a two-round burst, and we would have continued clearing the ENTIRE building while administering first aid and calling for medical aid.
7. By this time, they have effectively murdered the guy. This needed to be a surprise and speed operation, but instead they waited so long that whatever evidence they were looking for could have been destroyed by a mentally-handicapped quadriplegic 4-year-old on Valium.
8. Who pronounced him dead?

So the SWAT got a search warrant for a home they had no surveillance on, had no idea what they were getting into or why, were incapable of performing their duty when the time came, proved at every single point in the game that they were utterly incompetent and shouldn't be on a SWAT team, and likely shouldn't even be on the police force if for no other reason than their inability to hit what they are aiming at. Then they reinforced all of that by backing out and waiting for backup like a bunch of utter fools consumed only by cowardice.

Our country is becoming more f*****g pathetic everyday

Originally posted by blaze92
Our country is becoming more f*****g pathetic everyday

Agreed. The amount of people blindly believing only one side of the story here are not exactly a testament to critical thinking skills.

heres the deal, straight up, if it gets to the point where there is no hope left, all you have to lose is nothing, and people will revolt against such things, and yes the loss may be great but the effort will have not been in vain because people will see the travesty that is infront of them, it is not fair that such a thing should come to pass, but if something good comes out of a tragic hopeless effort to defend ones rights as a human being, not in relation to any given country but as a human being on planet earth, and the people that remain fail to see the wrong doings...then i would be glad to not live in a such a world...so basically...the talk and fear of it possibly happening is unnecessary, the action and bravery if it does happen is...who would really be willing to do so?...this is a very tragic example of things that may come...who would honestly defend against it all.

Sorry for necroposting but I was very involved in this discussion on a military special operations board and there is more to it than just they kicked in a door and shot him. That being said:

There is no need to execute a search warrant while the homeowner is there or the structure is otherwise occupied.
There is no need for them to force entry when confronted by an armed homeowner
My old SOP from my ERT days was to retreat, set up a perimeter, contain the subject and begin negotiations (unless fired upon) if possible
SWAT / ERT deployments are becoming the norm rather than the exception

Now in this particular case I have never, in my entire military and police career seen a more effed up, tore up from the floor up, incompetent, untrained and Mickey Mouse outfit than these yahoos.

This can be used as an example of how NOT to conduct high risk entry. FFS one a$$hat was firing his pistol over the heads of the other officers without having clue 1 what he was shooting at! This REALLY gets my blood boiling.

Then again this department is headed by the guy who said Rush Limbaugh was responsible for Ms. Giffords et. al. getting shot despite the shooter being a socialist/leftist adherent. If the boss is tore up- so is the organization.