Anatomy of a Deadly SWAT Raid Over a Few Bucks Worth of Pot

This Tampa Bay Tribune story goes into great--and depressing--detail about the genesis of May 27 SWAT team drug raid in Tampa that ended in the death of 29-year-old Jason Westcott. He had sold less than $200 worth of weed to a snitch over a four-month-period. His only previous encounter with Tampa police came months earlier when he called them over a man's threats to rob and kill him. According to his friends, cops then told him to get a gun and use it if someone tried to break in. Well, someone tried to break in, it was the SWAT team, and they killed him.

The cops now deny saying this. But as the Tampa Bay Tribune article makes clear, a lot of things the cops said turned out not to be true. The article also does a good job of analyzing no-knock raids. If each drug war killing got this kind of reporting--instead of just basically a police press release--we just might end up seeing fewer of them.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/informer-not-neighbor-complaints-led-up-to-fatal-tampa-pot-raid/2187316

TAMPA — Before the sirens and stretcher arrived on a hot night in May, there had been only one call to police about 906 W Knollwood St. It came from the house's renter, Jason Westcott, and he was looking for help.

A man who had partied at Westcott's home was plotting to rob him. An itinerant motorcycle mechanic, Westcott didn't have much — two televisions and a handgun that once belonged to his brother were perhaps the most valuable possessions in his 600-square-foot house in Seminole Heights — but he was terrified by his would-be intruder's threats to kill him.

Police tracked down the suspect and warned him to stay away. Westcott, those close to him said, was left with a word of advice from the investigating officers: If anyone breaks into this house, grab your gun and shoot to kill.

On the night of May 27, as armed men streamed through his front door, Westcott grabbed his gun. But the 29-year-old didn't have a chance to shoot before he died in a volley of gunfire. And those who killed him weren't robbers.

They were police officers from the same agency he had enlisted to protect his home.

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Much, much more at the link. Well worth the read.