Utah Man Shot to Death by Police for Raising a Golf Club...

[funkfool]

Having a copy of the warrant at the time of the execution isn't a fatal error.

Well, for the poor golf club wielding resident it quite literally is.

Of course, it would be nice to have it in hand when executing,...

Again... not the best nomenclature to be using to describe this sort of event...
(have what... a nine iron?)
Not to make light of this but... stop now if you are easily offended...
He should have shouted "FORE!"

Terribly sad and wholey avoidable tragedy.

Agreed.

[Bailey Guns]

I'm a little torn on this. I watched the video and read the far more comprehensive version of events from the SLC Tribune.

There is no excuse for the sloppy police work that led up to the execution of the warrant.

I also disagree with the no-knock warrant in this instance, as I do in most instances. I have issues, myself, with the so-called "war on drugs", it's effectiveness and cost to society. So I'm disappointed a no-knock warrant was used in this particular case.

Having said all that, when the officers entered, the officer who fired said he thought the object held by Blair may have been a sword. And they were only about 8' apart...not 20. The officer who fired was the first through the door and had moved to the right after advancing into the home. I can't really fault him for firing in this case.

Of course, without the warrant, whether or not he should have fired would've been a moot point.

It's very tragic anyway you look at it. But, given the circumstances, I agree the shooting itself (discounting all other factors) was justified. Judging the shooting in light of the totality of the circumstances is a different matter.

[BigBear]

Ban Police!!! It's for teh childrens!!! .... "damnit Bear, get back to your corner...."

[DeusExMachina]

I think its a hell of a lot more than 8'. Its clear across a living room. Officer saw the guy standing there and shot. The guy didn't seem to make any sort of threatening move.

I have a feeling if he was standing there with nothing in his hands he would have been shot anyway. The officer's reaction upon seeing the guy was to fire.

[TFOGGER]

I'm probably going to offend some LEOs, but I have an observation:

These "dynamic entry teams" and "drug task force" squads seem to attract the "cowboys" on the force. My impression from meeting a number of them (my stepkid is LEO) is that a lot of them are pretty cocky, and some are downright overconfident and condescending towards anyone that is not a part of the "team". Seriously, why would they have to make a no-knock entry, dressed like frickin ninjas, on a relatively minor drug warrant? It's not like they were assaulting the main stronghold of the Reynosa cartel. The fact that the officer involved had previously been involved in a (good) shoot also adds fuel to the fire in a civil trial, even if this shoot were entirely justified. Obviously, we don't have all of the facts, just what the news media wants us to have, so this shooting MAY have been justified, but it appears to me that a number of serious errors probably occurred.

Edit: Someone bouncing up the stairs in my house in the middle of the night dressed like a ninja and yelling, will probably go bouncing back down the stairs looking a lot like a ninja full of .45 caliber holes...

[palepainter]

Sad. It could have possibly been any one of us here getting served like that. Who knows for what. The outcome would have been different with any other means than a golf club.

Terribly disturbing.

[Bailey Guns]

The distance from Burnett to Blair has been estimated between “a little more than an arm’s length away,” according to Burnett, to 8 feet, as reflected by a scale diagram showing positions of the shell casings.

Obviously it was more than an arm's length. 8' doesn't seem unreasonable. If he (the shooting officer) thought it was a sword and the guy was inside of 21' he would've been facing a reasonably perceived deadly threat.

[ronaldrwl]

No-knock warrants have ZERO place in a free society outside of hostage rescue. PERIOD.

This is one place where I part with my conservative brethren, we need to end this God-awful stupid war on drugs because a single dead man with a golf club in his hand is worse then 1,000,000 new pot heads.

+1

And there should be jail time for the shooter.

[OneGuy67]

I'm probably going to offend some LEOs, but I have an observation:

These "dynamic entry teams" and "drug task force" squads seem to attract the "cowboys" on the force. My impression from meeting a number of them (my stepkid is LEO) is that a lot of them are pretty cocky, and some are downright overconfident and condescending towards anyone that is not a part of the "team". Seriously, why would they have to make a no-knock entry, dressed like frickin ninjas, on a relatively minor drug warrant? It's not like they were assaulting the main stronghold of the Reynosa cartel. The fact that the officer involved had previously been involved in a (good) shoot also adds fuel to the fire in a civil trial, even if this shoot were entirely justified. Obviously, we don't have all of the facts, just what the news media wants us to have, so this shooting MAY have been justified, but it appears to me that a number of serious errors probably occurred.

Edit: Someone bouncing up the stairs in my house in the middle of the night dressed like a ninja and yelling, will probably go bouncing back down the stairs looking a lot like a ninja full of .45 caliber holes...

You aren't offending me with your observations. There definitely is an "attitude" from those who volunteer for specifically the tactical unit. The narcotics unit, not necessarily, from my experience.

From what I gather from the SLC article, the actual warrant execution was conducted by their SWAT or tactical unit and not the narc unit, although from the video there appeared to be one narc in the stack that went in.

I've had the opportunity to observe Denver's full time SWAT unit execute warrants and they are fast, smooth and professional. Of course, they practice and train all the time and have no other work obligations other than SWAT. The rest of the agencies I've worked with have part time SWAT or tactical teams who train together when they can, from 8 hours a month to 8 hours a quarter. These are the teams I have concerns with and are the ones who usually have this issue.

[CrufflerSteve]

A Libertarian magazine, http://reason.com/ has kept track of botched no knock raids. There have been too many with incorrect addresses and bad data.

Suppose this happened in Colorado. How many posters here keep loaded guns in the house? How many would use them to defend their family if intruders burst into the house?

I think the War on Drugs has been a actually a war on the constitution. It wasn't intended that way but it happened. I think a pretty good argument could be made that we have lost this war and should cut our losses.

Steve