Georgia Man Killed in Drug Raid Was Face Down When Shot in Head....

[goldfly]

David Hooks, the Georgia man killed in a SWAT raid on his East Dublin home in September, was shot in the head and back while face down on the ground, according to his family's attorney, Mitchell Shook, who cited EMS and hospital records as evidence.

As reported by WMEZ-TV:

"One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots," says Shook.

Shook says they have not received the autopsy yet from the GBI.

As noted by Reason's Ed Krayewski, the raid was based on a tip from Rodney Garrett, a local meth addict who had just stolen a car from Hooks' property. According to the warrant, Garrett told police he removed a bag from the stolen vehicle believing it held cash, but instead discovered it was filled with meth. Apparently fearful he just robbed a local drug kingpin, he turned himself in because he "became scared for his safety."

The theft of one of their vehicles naturally made the Hooks household edgy that night, and David kept a shotgun in the house. Though the warrant did not contain a "no knock" provision, Hooks' wife, Teresa, says that the Laurens Country sheriff's deputies and their SWAT compatriots simply busted down their back door and charged in, guns blazing.

In an interview with WMEZ-TV, Hooks recalls the night her husband was killed:

"Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8 men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, 'Who is it?,' and I said I didn't know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over."

According to Shook, the Hooks' home was searched for more than 44 hours with no drugs or contraband found. But as the Drug War Chronicle reported:

Investigators also claimed they were familiar with the address from a 2009 investigation in which a suspect claimed he had supplied ounces of meth to Hooks, who resold it. Nothing apparently ever came of that investigation, but the five-year-old uncorroborated tip made it into the search warrant application.

The toxic combination of a "five year-old uncorroborated tip," a vague accusation from a confessed car thief and meth addict, and a recently robbed man reacting to a violent intrusion on his home created the conditions that led to the 17 shots fired by law enforcement that night.

In a statement that is becoming all too familiar, Shook said he hopes the Laurens County District Attorney will take the case to a grand jury and not solely rely on law enforcement's take of the deadly raid.




http://reason.com/blog/2014/12/11/ge...-raid-was-face

[goldfly]

Meet 59-year-old David Hooks, the latest drug raid fatality

Phillip Smith at the Drug War Chronicle sums up the news reports detailing the latest casualty in the never-ending U.S. war on drugs.

A Georgia SWAT team shot and killed an armed homeowner during a September 24 drug raid sparked by the word of a self-confessed meth addict and burglar who had robbed the property the previous day. No drugs were found. David Hooks, 59, becomes the 34th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to WMAZ TV 13, Laurens County sheriff’s deputies with the drug task force and special response team (SWAT team) conducted a no-knock search on Hooks’ home in East Dublin on the evening of the 24th. When the raiders burst through the back door of the residence, they encountered Hooks’ carrying a shotgun. Multiple deputies opened fire, shooting [and] killing Hooks.

According to his family, Hooks was not a drug user or seller, but was a successful businessman who ran a construction company that, among other things, did work on US military bases. Hooks had passed background checks and had a security clearance.

The search warrant to raid Hooks’ home came about after a local meth addict named Rodney Garrett came onto the property two nights earlier and stole one of Hooks’ vehicles. Garrett claimed that before he stole the vehicle, he broke into another vehicle on the property and stole a plastic bag. Garrett claimed he thought the bag contained money, but when he later examined it and discovered it contained 20 grams of meth and a digital scale, he “became scared for his safety” and turned himself in to the sheriff’s office.

(Hooks’ family, however, said that Garrett had been identified as the burglar and a warrant issued for his arrest the day after the burglary. He was arrested the following day; the raid happened that same night.)

Garrett’s claims were the primary basis for the search warrant. But investigators also claimed they were familiar with the address from a 2009 investigation in which a suspect claimed he had supplied ounces of meth to Hooks, who resold it. Nothing apparently ever came of that investigation, but the five-year-old uncorroborated tip made it into the search warrant application.

And it was enough to get a search warrant from a compliant magistrate. Hooks family attorney Mitchell Shook said that even though the warrant was not a no-knock warrant, the Laurens County SWAT team did not announce its presence, but just broke down the back door of the residence.

Mitchell Shook, an attorney for Hooks’s family, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that deputies spent 44 hours searching Hooks’s home for drugs — yet they found nothing. The attorney also told the Macon Telegraph that the shooting didn’t happen the way the police say it did.

According to the family attorney’s account, Hooks was asleep when armed deputies arrived at his house at 1184 Ga. 319 just before 11 p.m. Sept. 24. His wife, Teresa, was upstairs in her craft room when she heard a car drive fast up the driveway, and she looked out the window.

“She saw several men all in black and camo with hoods on,” Shook said. “She ran downstairs, woke David and said, ‘The burglars are back.’ ”

Hooks retrieved a gun and headed out of the bedroom as the officers broke down the back door, Shook said. He said Hooks was not wounded at the door but behind a wall in his house.

“They may have seen him with a weapon, but it appears at that point in time it was chaos,” Shook said. “They were shooting everywhere. There’s a lot more to it than law enforcement has reported.”

He believes deputies fired 16 to 18 shots from multiple guns and assault rifles. Shook also questioned the wisdom of serving the warrant so late at night.

The [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] is investigating the shooting, as is customary when officers are involved in wounding or killing a suspect.

The police are doing what they usually do after one of these raids goes wrong: They’re bunkering down.

Laurens County Sheriff Bill Harrell indicated last week his department would not be releasing any information beyond the initial news release. He also did not immediately return Wednesday’s inquiries concerning the attorney’s allegations.

So add another body to the pile. Four years ago, I described another fatality at the hands of a Georgia anti-drug task force — the death of pastor Jonathan Ayers. Eight years ago, a narcotics team from Atlanta killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a drug raid on her home, then attempted to plant drugs in her basement to cover its mistake. The team had been relying on a tip from an informant and did no corroborating investigation. In 2010, a Polk County, Ga., drug raid team put a 76-year-old woman in intensive care with congestive heart failure after raiding the wrong house. In 2008, a Gwinnett County tactical team terrified a couple and a baby when they raided the wrong home. In 2000, a Georgia police raid team shot and killed Lynette Gayle Jackson when she held up a gun as they broke into her home. Jackson had recently been robbed. In 2006, Deputy Joseph Whitehead was shot and killed during a surprise raid on a suspected drug house. The men who shot him, Antron Fair and Damon Jolly, argued that they thought they were being robbed by a gang. They later pleaded guilty to murder to avoid the death penalty. And, of course, last May, 19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh was critically wounded when officers deployed a flash grenade in his crib during a drug raid on his home. That raid, too, lacked much in the way of investigation.

Meanwhile, last week, a heavily armed team of Bartow County, Ga., cops and the Georgia governor’s anti-drug task force raided a man’s home after mistaking the okra in his garden for marijuana. No one was harmed, but the gardener, Dwayne Perry, described the cops as “armed to the gills” and told the Journal-Constitution, “The more I thought about it, what could have happened? Anything could have happened.” He’s right. Just ask the family of David Hooks.

That’s all just Georgia. Other things that have triggered raids after police mistook them for pot: tomatoes (many times), loose leaf tea, sunflowers, fish, elderberry bushes, kenaf plants, hibiscus, ragweed, yellow bell peppers, daisies, the scent of a skunk, the scent of guinea pigs and a plastic plant purchased for a pet lizard’s terrarium.

And, of course, people are dying outside of Georgia, too. Like Jason Westcott in May. In fact, by my count, 11 people have been killed in drug raids this year — nine civilians and two cops.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t...raid-fatality/

[gilesfan]

David Hooks, the Georgia man killed in a SWAT raid on his East Dublin home in September, was shot in the head and back while face down on the ground, according to his family's attorney, Mitchell Shook, who cited EMS and hospital records as evidence.

As reported by WMEZ-TV:

"One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots," says Shook.

Shook says they have not received the autopsy yet from the GBI.

As noted by Reason's Ed Krayewski, the raid was based on a tip from Rodney Garrett, a local meth addict who had just stolen a car from Hooks' property. According to the warrant, Garrett told police he removed a bag from the stolen vehicle believing it held cash, but instead discovered it was filled with meth. Apparently fearful he just robbed a local drug kingpin, he turned himself in because he "became scared for his safety."

The theft of one of their vehicles naturally made the Hooks household edgy that night, and David kept a shotgun in the house. Though the warrant did not contain a "no knock" provision, Hooks' wife, Teresa, says that the Laurens Country sheriff's deputies and their SWAT compatriots simply busted down their back door and charged in, guns blazing.

In an interview with WMEZ-TV, Hooks recalls the night her husband was killed:

"Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8 men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, 'Who is it?,' and I said I didn't know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over."

According to Shook, the Hooks' home was searched for more than 44 hours with no drugs or contraband found. But as the Drug War Chronicle reported:

Investigators also claimed they were familiar with the address from a 2009 investigation in which a suspect claimed he had supplied ounces of meth to Hooks, who resold it. Nothing apparently ever came of that investigation, but the five-year-old uncorroborated tip made it into the search warrant application.

The toxic combination of a "five year-old uncorroborated tip," a vague accusation from a confessed car thief and meth addict, and a recently robbed man reacting to a violent intrusion on his home created the conditions that led to the 17 shots fired by law enforcement that night.

In a statement that is becoming all too familiar, Shook said he hopes the Laurens County District Attorney will take the case to a grand jury and not solely rely on law enforcement's take of the deadly raid.




http://reason.com/blog/2014/12/11/ge...-raid-was-face

This is one to keep an eye on. It will be interesting to see if he was actually a drug kingpin.

[sturg33]

This is one to keep an eye on. It will be interesting to see if he was actually a drug kingpin.

Does that make a difference? Does that justify being shot and killed?

[sturg33]

I read a crazy stat from Ron Pual the other day... Can't find it right now - but it was something like less than 10% of drug raids are considered "successful"

[Krgrecw]

This is one to keep an eye on. It will be interesting to see if he was actually a drug kingpin.

Most people have bags of Meth sitting in thier car

[zitothebrave]

Does that make a difference? Does that justify being shot and killed?

It does to some people.

[gilesfan]

Does that make a difference? Does that justify being shot and killed?

Yes. If he's a drug kingpin with a gun in his hand during a raid; it's a lot different than an innocent grandfather believing his house was getting robbed.

People that have bags of Meth in their car act differently toward cops than people that are innocent, no?

[zitothebrave]

Most people have bags of Meth sitting in thier car

Maybe he was just trying to lose weight.

[sturg33]

Yes. If he's a drug kingpin with a gun in his hand during a raid; it's a lot different than an innocent grandfather believing his house was getting robbed.

People that have bags of Meth in their car act differently toward cops than people that are innocent, no?

Perhaps. But if he's face down and thus, not a threat, why kill him?

And sounds like they never found anything.

[zitothebrave]

Perhaps. But if he's face down and thus, not a threat, why kill him?

And sounds like they never found anything.

Because he's a menace to society!

[gilesfan]

Perhaps. But if he's face down and thus, not a threat, why kill him?

And sounds like they never found anything.

Has the autopsy been done or is this just the word of a lawyer who will be filing suit in the future? If he was face down, obviously no more shots were needs.

Just because they didn't find anything doesn't mean he's not a drug dealer. The dude already said he found a bag of meth in the car he stole from Hooks. (who was also previously investigated for selling meth)

[thethe]

Because he's a menace to society!

A drug kingpin that is dealing Meth is a menace to society.

But, still doesn't mean that someone who isn't a threat should be shot though.

[sturg33]

All drugs should be legal...

[zitothebrave]

Has the autopsy been done or is this just the word of a lawyer who will be filing suit in the future? If he was face down, obviously no more shots were needs.

Just because they didn't find anything doesn't mean he's not a drug dealer. The dude already said he found a bag of meth in the car he stole from Hooks. (who was also previously investigated for selling meth)

IIRC they didn't have access to the autopsy, they're going by what's available to them from EMS, crime scene info, etc.

And the dude who said he saw the bag was ****ing stealing from him. Why in the ****s sake would you believe a methhead burglar who's probably just trying to get out of something. Maybe he was dealing, maybe someone told the methhead he was dealing. All I know is this case is bad. Who does a drug raid at 11 PM? Who issues a warrant on the word of a meth addict? I could go on, but hell lets keep killing people or else we'll lose the War on Drugs.

[thethe]

All drugs should be legal...

I disagree.

[zitothebrave]

A drug kingpin that is dealing Meth is a menace to society.

But, still doesn't mean that someone who isn't a threat should be shot though.

No, unless he's killing people, he's not a menace to society. Drug dealers who only deal drugs are doing nothing that should be illegal in the land of the free. But you got to keep people in prison, how else can the privatized prisons make money without stuffing thme to the gills with free labor.

[thethe]

No, unless he's killing people, he's not a menace to society. Drug dealers who only deal drugs are doing nothing that should be illegal in the land of the free. But you got to keep people in prison, how else can the privatized prisons make money without stuffing thme to the gills with free labor.

People under the influence of Meth could potentially endanger others. That is not a drug that should be legal.

[zitothebrave]

People under the influence of Meth could potentially endanger others. That is not a drug that should be legal.

If it wasn't for the war on drugs, meth probably would never have been invented. If cocaine was legal why would you need amphetamines?

That being said the people who're potentially endangering others are the threats, not the people daleing drugs. What happened to personal accountability?

[thethe]

If it wasn't for the war on drugs, meth probably would never have been invented. If cocaine was legal why would you need amphetamines?

That being said the people who're potentially endangering others are the threats, not the people daleing drugs. What happened to personal accountability?

What a stupid analogy. I can't even have a conversation with you when you say stuff like this.