Woman, 92, dies in shootout with police

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by RightHand, Nov 22, 2006.


  1. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A 92-year-old woman was shot to death Tuesday after she fired at three narcotics officers trying to serve a warrant at her house, officials said.

    Neighbors and relatives said it must have been a case of mistaken identity. Police said they had the right address.

    Police said the woman, identified as Kathryn Johnson, was the only person home at the time, and had lived there for about 17 years.

    As the plainclothes Atlanta police officers approached the house about 7 p.m., a woman inside started shooting, striking each of them, said Officer Joe Cobb, a police spokesman.

    Assistant Chief Alan Dreher said the officers had a legal warrant and "knocked and announced" before they forced open the door. He said they were justified in returning fire when they were fired upon.

    One was hit in the arm, another in a thigh and the third in a shoulder. The officers were taken to a hospital for treatment, and all three were conscious and alert, police said.

    Sarah Dozier, identified as a niece of the woman, told WAGA-TV that there were never any drugs at the house.

    "My aunt was in good health. I'm sure she panicked when they kicked that door down," Dozier said. "There was no reason they had to go in there and shoot her down like a dog."

    Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
     
  2. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    First off, let me say there is a lot of information missing from this article. Since the Assistant Chief said they had the right house, how much and what type of drugs were found?

    And one thing that doesn't make sense to me. The article says that the 92 year-old shot at the officers while they were approaching, in pain clothes. So lets say they are in the driveway or street and get out of the car and this granny just opens fire on them??? Now the niece says that "she panicked when they kicked the door in", um well, if they were underfire and trying to get in to get the lady, I'm sure they are not going to ring the door bell and wait for her to answer it are they?

    I would really like to hear/read more information on this story.

    Ryan
     
  3. ChemicalGal

    ChemicalGal Monkey+++

    Heres the story from Drudge http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/p...n=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

    i believe they originally said they had knocked & announced the warrant.

    92 years old. Could she have been hard of hearing? in one of the videos, i noticed that one of the officers had black ski mask...could she have been operating out of fear?

    they usually announce & kick within seconds of the start so she could have just been reacting to the kick part.....this is one of the foreseeable problems with the new law.

    IMHO, she did a fine job if they were robbers, not so good with police.
    And there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
    cg
     
  4. TailorMadeHell

    TailorMadeHell Lurking Shadow Creature

    From what I see there is still no mention of drugs found. There is no mention of heavily armed assailants in the home. There is no mention that 'Granny had a gat'. So far all they are stressing is that they went 'by the book' and this is a justifiable action. Look at the house and you find that it does not even fit the profile of a drug house. This is an example, in my mind, of excessive force being used. Didn't realize the Black Panthers were on the move again. Knew that there would be a reverend around somewhere and also knew that there would be mention of Johnny's name.

    The ones that got shot up or didn't aren't at blame here. This goes to the heart of their intel and the leader of the troop that told them how to enter the 'drug house'. I hope that this all finds it to the light of day and isn't covered over by those PR spin doctors out there. The cops had a job to do and if shot at they have a right to shoot back, however if your intel is based on a load of BS then there should be appropriate actions taken to get rid of the DAs that give you the info.

    Also the lady had a right to defend herself from people 'breaking' into her home. Who is to say whether she actually heard what they were trying to tell her at all? She was 92 after all. I hope I can still hear as well as I do now when I'm that old. Know what I mean?
     
  5. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

    Stands to reason "more aggressive policing" and the militarization of civillian "peace officers"....will be creating more dangerous situations instead of of increasing the public welfare...remember "protect and serve"? Now seems everybody's got black balaclava's and mp5's.More on the story:
    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2674110
     
  6. TailorMadeHell

    TailorMadeHell Lurking Shadow Creature

    'She was waiting with her gun on Tuesday night....'

    I can see it all clearly now,

    Yeah, she knew they were coming and was going to give the cops a whatfor in payment for taking Her drug money off the streets. Without that money she can't pay for her annual geriatric checkups. It peeved her so that she decided that if they take from her, she should take from them.

    Oh, and there is more....

    There were drugs found in the home. Since when have you ever seen a drug bust, either involving a shooting or not, where they didn't immediately take pictures and film of the drugs and weapons and post it in the news? This is an after the fact accounting to cover up their screw up, IMHO.

    Oh, and more....

    Looking for some guy named Sam in his mid 30s. Though unclear as to the relation of the victim. Anyone ever buy drugs before? I can say that I know a little about the actions and I know that it is not always in front of your house where you stand to sell them. It could be a neighbor or friend. So some DA judge issued a warrant on a subject with nothing more than he was in his mid 30s, called Sam and stood by this ladies house.

    Oh, and want some disrespect from the media?

    'The officers had gone to the old woman's house....'

    They didn't even care to use the ladies name in this statement, just call her an old woman and there you have it folks.


    This is an example of a judge that needs to be put out of office. This is an example of poor intel gathering. This is also an example of someone needlessly dying because of misuse of power controlling excessive force.

    This is why people have less and less faith in any of the system that still works. Why do you think more and more people take the law into their own hands rather than call the cops?

    The spin doctors didn't take too long on this one did they? Wonder how much dope and what kind it was that the 'old woman' was hiding for her 'Sam'? Bet it will be in the pounds if an ounce.

    Just my thoughts. Such a lovely thing to bear witness to on Thanksgiving. I take a little comfort that this lady may be with her maker now instead of trudging through this system that is way off course and heading down fast.
     
  7. Wild Trapper

    Wild Trapper Pirate Biker

    My Mom is 91, she is almost blind, she can not hear good anymore. I am also hard of hearing, you should hear us try to talk to each other on the phone. It ain't pretty but it can be done.

    Anyway, she packs a wicked assault cane. They ever try to bust down her door they better be warned, it won't be pretty.
     
  8. monkeyman

    monkeyman Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Sounds to me like another case of cops getting things screwed up on where they were supposed to be, even if it was the adress that was on the warrant, then kicking in the door as they announce. The woman may or may not have heard, may have heard yelling but couldnt understand what was being yelled or may simply have known she had done nothing to merit police presence and assumed, especialy since they were not uniformed, that it was street thugs claiming to be cops to avoid being shot. Once she had opened fire on them I can not expect any one officer or not to NOT shoot back and elimenate the threat even if they had brought things to that point. As to the drugs found, unless I missed what they were supposed to be, my guess would be that they would have found drugs/controled substances. Most folks well before that age now days have a whole shoe box full of drugs they take every day and get from their Dr that are controled substances.

    IMO its a huge problem with the way law enforcement is handled now. I know that if someone kicked in my door and yelled 'police, search warrant' or not that since I do not participate in illegal activities, I would assume especialy unless they were uniformed and/or I had seen marked cruisers out front, that it was criminals breaking in to do and my family harm and would respond accordingly. Especialy if it turned out that it was LEOs then this could not likely end well for anyone, especialy me since from that point its not likely that you will fare well in court even if you had done nothing wrong.
     
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