U.S. FEBRUARY 20, 2019 / 11:22 PM / UPDATED 17 HOURS AGO

FBI investigating deadly police raid in Houston

Alex Dobuzinskis
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - The FBI is investigating a Houston police drug raid last month that left two suspects dead and several officers wounded, following allegations the operation was based on false information, agency officials said on Wednesday.

Officers raided a Houston home on Jan. 28 to serve a search warrant looking for narcotics, and in an ensuing shootout the home’s occupants, Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, were killed and four officers were wounded by gunfire.

In an affidavit for the search warrant, veteran officer Gerald Goines wrote before the raid that a confidential informant had reported buying heroin at the home, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has said since the raid that the search warrant contained false information and no heroin was found, but that some marijuana was discovered.

“The FBI Houston field office has opened an independent civil rights investigation into allegations that a search warrant obtained by Houston police officers was based on false, fabricated information,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement on Wednesday.

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