Lima, Ohio Drug Raid Gone Bad

Police in Lima, Ohio shot and killed Tarika Wilson, a mother of six, and seriously wounded her one-year-old son during a drug raid yesterday. Police say they were investigating Wilson's boyfriend for drug distribution. They haven't yet released why the police fired (though they have said police initially fired at two pit bulls). The fact that they aren't saying so doesn't bode well. When the suspect fires first in one of these cases, that fact is generally immediately released to the newspapers.

More disturbing, the police are saying they knew there were children in the home, yet went ahead a highly volatile, forced-entry drug raid, anyway. In fact…

Police Maj. Richard Shade, a former SWAT commander for the department, said it's not unusual for children to be inside homes raided by police officers.

And therein lies yet another problem with these raids. It's bad enough that they're dangerous for cops, suspects, and people unfortunate enough to be the victim of wrong-door raids. But even when they get the correct house, there's little regard for the safety of innocent people who might be inside. Why couldn't they have nabbed this guy as he was coming or going? Why not wait for him to leave, then arrest him in his car? Why put six children and their mother in unnecessary peril?

There are far, far too many cases of innocent children, girlfriends, spouses, relatives, and visitors being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and winding up killed, injured, or arrested for mistaking raiding cops for criminal intruders.

Comments

[drawnasunder]

Fucking cops...

[joe]

Son of a bitch. Mother of six?

I don't want to hear about how understandable the cops' actions were "given the circumstances."

They created those circumstances with their irresponsible tactics.

Sometimes cops in stressful, confusing situations make mistakes with guns. Sometimes soldiers in stressful, confusing situations do the same. That's why you avoid that situations whenever there's an alternative.

[Reinmoose]

Those children (injured and uninjured) should feel proud. They and their mother are on the front-line of the W.O.D, which is, after all, for the children!

[LibertyPlease]

...mistaking raiding cops for criminal intruders.

Is there a difference? Even if there were some noble purpose to military-style raids on civilians, from every account I've read I don't think I (or my 12ga) would be able to differentiate.

[P Brooks]

It was an accident, and those nice policemen meant well.

After all, the cops would understand if you accidentally shot one of them, wouldn't they?

[Reinmoose]

The policemen are heroes!

[ed]

The fact remains that we are a nation of identities, not ideas. I'm guessing by her name that Tarika is (was) black. Does white America care? How can there be outrage over senseless acts such as these when, more importantly, Britney is teetering on the brink? The real test will be when the SWAT teams come for our Twinkies.

[Reinmoose]

I'm sorry ed, but by "Twinkies" did you mean white people, or American-born Asians (yellow on the outside, white on the inside -- not my phrasing)

[zig zag man]

Welcome to the war on some drugs, where drugs are apparently (in the eyes of Johhny Law) more important than people.

[the innominate one]

Reinmoose, I think ed was being literal; Twinkies as in the snack cake. Remember Huckabee's upcoming war on obesity.

[Reinmoose]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

*looks sheepish*

[P Brooks]

Hillary will be on this in a big way. I just know it.

[Plant Immigration Rights Suppo]

This will not stop untill more people get tired of having their homes invaded and STK all invaders, cops or otherwise. Effing knock next time, OK?

[Plant Immigration Rights Suppo]

"Hillary will be on this in a big way. I just know it."

Only if she thinks it will get her votes. Correct me if I am wrong but I think she is a big supporter of the WOD. She will probably avoid it with a 10 foot pole.

[Episiarch]

I think booby traps need to be legalized. That would probably stop this shit immediately. Of course, innocent people might be killed...oh, wait.

[Brian Courts]

Why couldn't they have nabbed this guy as he was coming or going? Why not wait for him to leave, then arrest him in his car?

Because then that expensive SWAT team and all its gear would go unused, and more importantly, these cowards wouldn't get to dress up and play army guy while busting into some poor citizen's home pretending it's Osama's lair or something. I bet these guys get all jacked up watching some show about military raids in Iraq on Discovery channel and then they're itching to strap on their body armor and go bust some pot-heads (or senior citizen poker players) because they want the adrenaline rush and perceived glory with none of the risk.

Everyone on this raid should be charged with felony murder, but the reality is they'll all be cleared as having acted in accordance with proper police procedures. I wonder how many of the goons were on steroids...

Once again, what we need is a War on Thugs.

[JW]

Why couldn't they have nabbed this guy as he was coming or going? Why not wait for him to leave, then arrest him in his car? Why put six children and their mother in unnecessary peril?

Where's the fun in that?

C'mon Radley, don't be a buzzkill. Cops need cheap thrills too.

[BakedPenguin]

I think she is a big supporter of the WOD. She will probably avoid it with a 10 foot pole.

It's all in how you go about it. "It's not that the WoD is wrong in general, it's that these individuals made a tragic mistake, etc. etc., isolated incident, etc. etc." If she addresses it, she'll probably do so by proposing some "solution" that adds back one small piece of habeas corpus, narrowly focused on this situation (e.g., "judges must sign off on no-knock warrants where there are children"), while simultaneously adding a new layer of bureaucracy.

[Patrick O\'Connor]

If the cops tried policing like this in my city, they'd have angry mobs w/ torches and pitchforks gathered outside of the courthouse demanding someone's head (or at least their job) be delivered on a pike.

How fucked up a place is Lima, that the citizenry not only accepts this kind of shit, but looks on it as a service to their community?

[juris imprudent]

Reinmoose, you're no Dan T.

[Ramsey]

Here I was, all set to enjoy my sunday, and you had to go and post this garbage. Home...Castle...Frank Castle... Punisher...comic books..... Okay, I am happy again.

Seriously, I have a love hate relationship with this reporting. It needs to be said, but the angry bile that rises in my throat every time I read about these "isolated incidents" is probably destroying my esophagus.

[crimethink]

Patrick,

From the second article, it definitely doesn't seem like the people of Lima are accepting this (well, at least not the black community).

[crimethink]

Luckily, it appears the officers did exercise more caution due to the likely presence of children:

Officers used at least one stun grenade to create a loud noise prior to entering the residence, but the charges were detonated outside, the chief said.

"Because of the possibility that we had children in there, they were not lobbed inside," he said.

[Brandybuck]

I think I've figured out the cops' strategy in all this. After years of "isolated incidents", the public will grow numb to these abuses, freeing the authorities to commit even more outrageous violations of our liberties.

[Col DuBois]

We wouldn't want one of the kids to get scared by a loud noise, would we?

[crosby, stills, nash, crimethi]

Tin soldiers and SWAT Team's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are cutting us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?

[JW]

The raid took place shortly after 8 p.m. Friday at 218 E. Third St. Garlock said the SWAT team is highly skilled and has conducted thousands of other raids without problems. Such raids always are dangerous and "high risk," he said.

The saddest thing of all is that the "risk" he refers to is likely the cop's, not the victim's.

Fucking tool. THEN DON'T DO THEM!

Interesting that the building was owned by a city council member.

[J sub D]

"This is a terrible situation that resulted from a very dangerous situation that occurs when a high-risk search warrant is executed,"

Uh, guys -
You think that maybe executing fewer "high risk search warrants" might be a good idea? You think Anthony Terry, notorious crack cocaine possesser, leaves his residence from time to time? You think you could have nabbed him without initiating a firefight in a residence filled with children?

Uh, Hillary, Barack, Mitt, John (R), Rudy, Mike, John (D), let's talk about the War on Drugs Minorities.

Before anyone says this isn't a federal issue, bet me that Lima funded their SWAT (Special Weapons and Terror) sans federal dollars. I haven't researched it at all. Any takers?

[Hooter_McBoob]

Oh c'mon. This was just an isolated incident.

[Mister DNA]

At least we can rest easy knowing that this is an isolated incident and it won't happen again...

[Hooter_McBoob]

::I think I've figured out the cops' strategy in all this. After years of "isolated incidents", the public will grow numb to these abuses, freeing the authorities to commit even more outrageous violations of our liberties.::

I think they're incompetent, more so than malevolent, but I do agree with your point. Eventually people will become numb to this crap, if they ever cared at all.

[Brian Courts]

Garlock said the SWAT team is highly skilled and has conducted thousands of other raids without problems.

WTF? Police in Lima, OH have conducted thousands of SWAT raids!?! What the hell for?? It's a city of 40,000 people in the middle of nowhere. How can such a place have any need for thousands of SWAT raids??

This is the heart of the problem - SWAT raids used all the time in situations where they are in no way necessary. The police are entirely at fault for all of this carnage at the hands of SWAT teams ; there is no need for them except in armed stand-offs where hostages are involved. That's it. SWAT teams should never be used for warrant service or arrests. The smug arrogance of these goons as they try to justify the use of these tactics by calling the raid "high-risk" is just appalling. The police are the only reason these raids are high-risk.

[tom keiffer]

In the middle of nowhere? Lima is right on I75 the largest drug running interstate in the country. It is also near Detroit. It also is near Federal Route 30, and has been nicknamed Little Chicago since the 1920's. Maybe do a little research before you spout of your opinion.

[Brian Courts]

I think they're incompetent, more so than malevolent,

If smashing down doors in the middle of the night, dressed in paramilitary gear, using military tactics, scaring and risking the lives of thousands of innocent family members, killing who knows how many, all to catch some small time drug dealer or poker player, isn't malevolent then I'm not sure what is.

No, these raids do not go wrong primarily due to incompetence (though that is often a contributing factor) - they go wrong because the vast majority of times they have no reason to conduct them in the first place. That they continue to do so is not incompetence, it is malevolence.

[P Brooks]

Uh, Hillary, Barack, Mitt, John (R), Rudy, Mike, John (D), let's talk about the War on Drugs Minorities.

Would any of those people be able to identify Kathryn Johnston without turning the question over to a research team?

Would any of them offer a comment without running it through a rigorous focus group program?

[JW]

Lima Police Chief Greg Garlock would not identify the officer involved in the shooting but said that he has been placed on administrative leave. He did not know how many officers entered the house and provided no details of the raid or what prompted the fatal shooting.

Is Garlock some other worldy anagram of Wiggums? Do you know anything about what goes on in your punk-ass Barney Fife department?

The chief said the search warrant resulted from a "long-term investigation" of the boyfriend. He was arrested on suspicion of possession of crack cocaine and was being held last night in the Allen County jail.

If it was so long term, you'd think they would have had his travel patterns down by now, no? Unless "long term" in Lima is somewhere north of 5 minutes and just south of a half-hour.

This is a terrible situation that resulted from a very dangerous situation that occurs when a high-risk search warrant is executed," Chief Garlock said.

"But we did it anyway. Boys and their toys, you know how it is." Garlock said with a chuckle as he shook his head, wryly smiling. The chief then excused himself from the press, saying he had a long-term, dangerous and high risk crap coming on.

[sine]

Toys on the front porch of 218 E. Third St. were the tip-off children may be inside. Police officers also knew the man they were after, Anthony Terry, 31, had been in prison and had numerous run-ins with police officers including a time in which he tried to use a weapon on an officer.

http://www.limaohio.com/story.php?IDnum=47630

I suspect that for many people the second sentence will outweigh any doubts they may have. Ugh.

[rico]

did you guys read the article? this guy was in possession of MARIJUANA! sure, they killed a mom and shot a baby, but they got a pot-dealer off the streets. don't you feel safer?

[John-David]

Too bad she isn't a pretty white missing hiker; CNN would be all over this story.

[J sub D]

That they continue to do so is not incompetence, it is malevolence.

I think rather than malevolence, we're seeing hubris, and callousness. We are not no longer "citizens" deserving respect, we are "civilians" deserving contempt. LEO apologizers, please show me evidence that I've reached the wrong conclusion.

[sine]

Oh, and the tone of many of these articles is unbelievable. They are acting like the real risk is an uprising by the black community and avoiding that is the most important thing at stake.

Because dude, it's not like the cops are shooting innocent people or anything.

[J sub D]

Would any of those people be able to identify Kathryn Johnston without turning the question over to a research team?

Would any of them offer a comment without running it through a rigorous focus group program?

No, and No.

[JW]

The worst part about this is now Chief Garlock is going to have to reset the "_ Days Without a Borked Raid" sign back to 0.

Man, I feel for him.

[J sub D]

New SWAT (Special Weapons and Terror) raid motto! Remember Kathryn Johnston! Remember Tarika Wilson and pray for her children!

[Your Good Buddy Johnny Clarke]

I'd say the easiest way to resolve all this is to make possession or distribution of drugs, or association with anyone who possesses or distributes drugs, or being anywhere within bullet's reach of someone who possesses or distributes drugs, a death penalty offense. I mean, if catching a druggie justifies shooting up a house full of children, then they're already applying the punishment, we just need to make it legal.

I'm all about solutions.

[J sub D]

I resolved to cease using profanities in my inter tube posts this year. I don't think I'm going to make it. I am so angry right now that civil words fail me. Six children, sent to multiple foster homes probably. We are all aware how well that usually works, aren't we?

I'd curse Mr. Balko for my mood, but you can't blame the messenger.

[Brian Courts]

I think rather than malevolence, we're seeing hubris, and callousness.

Well, J sub D, I do think it is certainly hubris and callousness, but the attitude police routinely show towards minorities, and particularly any minority suspected of using teh drugs, is properly characterized as malevolent. Further, even if for some officers there isn't conscious, or subjective, malevolence, continuing the same behavior that we see time and time again rises to a certain objective malevolence. Meaning, if it looks like malevolence, walks like malevolence, and quacks like malevolence, chances are, it's malevolence.

But in the end, I don't much care what label we apply to it other than saying regardless of the motivation the actions are repugnant and wrong.

Also, once again I'm left to ponder how these goons can sleep at night and look themselves in the mirror in the morning.

[Robert]

The people who do these things must have read news stories like this. So I have to conclude that they and their bosses enjoy creating mayhem. They'd do it to anyone they thought they could get away with, and their bosses' bosses can do no more than ration their opp'ties for doing so. We're human sacrifices to satiate them from time to time.

[joe]

Patrick O'Connor,

How fucked up a place is Lima, that the citizenry not only accepts this kind of shit, but looks on it as a service to their community?

Did you notice that her name is "Tarika?"

That's how.

[Ayn_Randian]

How fucked up a place is Lima, that the citizenry not only accepts this kind of shit, but looks on it as a service to their community?

uh, yeah, we're all a bunch of podunk racists up there in the 419.

How enlightened to presume the whole community hates the blacks.

Have you actually even been to Lima, joe?

[Ayn_Randian]

Larger point - I know this pisses us all off, but calling a whole community out-and-out racist is not productive; it's a War on All of Our Rights, so let's stop playing the race card, please.

[J sub D]

I just finished gazing into my crystal ball. Within a week, Tarika Wilson will be identified as a coconspirator in the drug trade, an addict AND an unfit mother. Child abuse allegations will, at the very least, be hinted at. Since, being dead, Tarika will not deny the allegations, the public will, by and large, accept the allegations and innuendo as fact. I'll be googling Lima Tarika Wilson for the next week, hoping it turns out I'm a cynical asshole and Tarika is allowed to rest in peace. Gentlemen, place your bets.

[J sub D]

it's a War on All of Our Rights, so let's stop playing the race card, please.

But it is difficult to ignore that the casualties are disproportionally people of color. I'm aware that poor people are "low hanging fruit" in the drug war so the intent may not be racist. To me, it seems obvious that the results of the drug war are skewed against the low income, thus minority, citizens. FBI stats alone lead to that conclusion.

[Paul]

Can we now officially call "bullshit" when we watch a movie with two plain-clothes cops serving a warrant in a potentially dangerous situation?

It's pretty much to the point that if a lone cop were ever at my door, I'd assume a fake uniform and start shooting.

During my trial, I'd claim that they don't serve warrants that way anymore, so my suspicians were totally well founded.

[tarran]

The Drug War was originally conceived as a racist policy - one aimed at blacks, hispanics, philipinos and orientals.

The original advocates and legislators were far more honest about it than its modern proponents.

[sef07]

I ran a quick google news search. I got madder and madder as I read the articles figuring it couldn't be this bad. I was right, it was worse.

The gunshot wounds described in press accounts indicate that the baby was shot in the hand AND, by a different round, in the shoulder, after the bullets had struck the mother. This seems to indicate that the officer either saw the decedent face to face with the baby in her arms, or at least from my experience, a shot through the back or side.

I should note that the target of the raid was on the first floor & Ms. Wilson was on the second floor. Several of the reports on google news suggest that the target was in custody when Ms. Wilson was shot dead.

Also not sure why the police released her rap sheet (minor drug conviction) & a picture of her in jail garb. Whoever is handling damage control has decided to smear the decedent as a way of minimizing the damage -- a very, very dangerous strategy that often will up the puni's when the case hits federal court.

The arrestee seems to have been on the cops "bad" list as he purportedly once pointed a weapon in a cops direction a decade ago.

Also, what is a town of 40k doing with its own SWAT team? Is Lima, Ohio so craptacular that it needs a SWAT team OR is it a case of drug forfeiture laws permitting the cops to have the funds to have one and, once funded, it had to be used.

Gov. Strickland appears to have been scheduled to go to Lima this Thursday prior to the shooting. Should be interesting.

[J sub D]

Also not sure why the police released her rap sheet (minor drug conviction) & a picture of her in jail garb.

1 hr, 02 minutes. My Crystal ball is one for one. She's a doper ex-convict. Tarika remains silent.

[brotherben]

J sub D,

good call. I figured it to be a losing bet.

Most folks down here (alabama) will say the law is just callin a spade a spade. I am surprised this hasn't degraded into the "all cops are bad cops" thread. It has been my experience (brother of mine was a cop) that police work draws a certain type of individual. My bro was an arse long before he put on a shield.

[Death to Authority]

I totally agree that people should be allowed to pump out crotch fruit after crotch fruit, collect higher and higher welfare checks, and sell drugs out their home without fear of being arrested.

Kids must be good for something.

[crimethink]

Perhaps not without fear of being arrested, but definitely without fear of having themselves and their children shot by armored thugs who happen to have badges.

[Brian Courts]

I am surprised this hasn't degraded into the "all cops are bad cops" thread.

Of course there are lots of so-called "good cops" - I'm sure it is purely coincidence that they are all busy looking the other way while these few "bad-apples" get their story straight... again.

[Death to Authority]

Yes, the police are the thugs and the drug dealers angels on earth.

According to your logic, as long as these criminals keep having children and don't leave the house, they should be allowed to operate unchallenged for fear of an inocent child being shot.

Do you honestly believe it's the fault of the police and not the mother and her drug dealing boyfriend that these children are in danger?

Yes, blame the police force for doing its job in stopping crime, and not the mother for raising her children in a drug lair.

[Bucks#1]

Tanika had a drug dealing boyfriend that had a criminal record involving drugs and being violent towards cops. Tanika has been to prison regarding drugs. HELLO, she was not innocent, she knew what her boyfriend was doing. She had 6 kids, she put her own selfish wants in front of her children by allowing them to be in a drug house. Read the facts. Cops didn't run in there intentionally killing people. Her 6 children are now safe. If anyone wants to spout anything off about the cops blah blah blah, this was a drug house people. You obviously know nothing about the drug culture. Lima has had serious crimes that have happened because of drugs. Tanika made the decision to be involved with crime, she knew the risks that she was taking. She paid the ultimate price with her life. Selling drugs are illegal, the cops can kick in your door! HELLO!!!

[sef07]

Bucks:

What planet do you live on? There was a small amount of drugs & mj recovered that appears to be consistent with personal use. No scales, no baggies, no large amounts of cash seized. The cops killed this woman AFTER the suspect was in custody. There is absolutely zero evidence in the public record that this was a drug safe house or a place where drugs were dealt other than the naked claims by the cops.

And why did the cop (and it was just one cop who shot her) fire not once but at least twice in to an unarmed woman holding a baby? The first shot may have been accidental, a second shot screams of premeditation or, at the very least, such a reckless disregard for human life as to punishable by a very long prison stint.

Again, what reason does LIMA have for a SWAT team? Is a town of merely 40k so craptacular that it needs its own paramilitary commando unit?

And what did the kid do to deserve to be shot? I guess it was his fault for being boldly throwing his body in front of police bullet or two (ok, at least two).

[tkeiffer]

a 2 year conviction wasn't a minor drug charge, I live in Lima, she put herself into this situation on at least 2 seperate occasions with 2 guys the first that she got busted with is doing 10 years

[sef07]

Two years is a minor drug charge. Ten years is a major drug charge. Just curious, how do you know so much about her record and that of her paramours? Is it online somewhere?

[tkeiffer]

The swat team in Lima performs on average 50 drug raids per year, do you think just because it isn't new york or chicago or detroit it shouldn't have crime, I wish. If you look at a map Lima is a halfway point between Detroit and Cincinnati, Toledo and Dayton, Chicago and Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Cleveland, Columbus and Ft Wayne, IN. And you can't spell L.ost I.n M.iddle A.merica without it

[tkeiffer]

yes http://vlex.com/vid/21634759

[tkeiffer]

It was her first offense and she got 2 years that is major in Ohio

[joe]

Ayn Randian, get off your high horse. No one has called the entire city racist, and you don't have to travel to every city in American to realize that the police get away with treating black people like crap, especially in drug cases.

[sef07]

I live in a similar sized town. We disbanded our SWAT team for the same reason you are about disband yours. Your taxes are about to go way up to pay for the civil rights suits headed your way.

And yes forty raids a year is very, very large number of raids for such a small town.

And yet still you don't mention how you know about her, her lovers, and all of their records.

[tkeiffer]

By the Way the man the police were after Anthony Terry had a history of attempting to use a weapon on a police officer

[joe]

There sure are a lot of completely-unbiased people who know a great deal about the policing and crime in Lima, Ohio on this thread.

[tkeiffer]

i posted the website, and it was 50 per year. Besides we still don't know the color of the officer not that it matters they did find crack and marijuana in the house, and we don't know what went on in that house

[sef07]

TKeiffer:

Yes, Terry had a history of bad blood with the cops. And I am sure on cross-examination you and your fellow officers will have a chance to explain how this didn't impact your decision to invade a home with 6 small children at nighttime with guns blazing. This story screams of foul play and why the police should have arrested him after he was out of the house and away from any potential stash of weapons.

[sef07]

TK:

Isn't your county about to let go a guy from death row because the cops there purportedly framed him? Kenny Richey?

[tkeiffer]

I noticed that too, could they find it on a map? Probably not

[tkeiffer]

no that was putnam county and they didn't frame him he had an expert that the defense paid for that couldn't refute the evidence.

[tkeiffer]

if i wasn't a convicted felon i would love to be a cop don't presume to know me you don't

[tkeiffer]

what i did do was read my local newspaper and watch television stations and the press conferences and went online to find out the facts not sit thousand of miles away presuming to know everything like the elitest that i am

[tkeiffer]

facts are all I have

[tkeiffer]

i c u hate to argue when someone has the facts

[tkeiffer]

http://www.indianasmostwanted.com/warrant/02.419000

here's more

[tkeiffer]

there is one in michigan too from what I hear

[tkeiffer]

what do you think of that

[bachwards]

tkeiffer,

The reason people are objecting to the use of SWAT raids is not because they presume there is no crime in Lima, Ohio. Rather, it seems highly questionable to have to use these paramilitary tactics so frequently in such a small town. I also have a hard time imagining why it took toys on the front porch to suggest to officers that children might be on the site if they had been conducting a "long-term" investigation. The mere presence of crack or marijuana in the house, nor the suspect's criminal history, justifies the actions of the SWAT team. Finally, your suggestion that a failure to respond to your posts within 10 minutes indicates victory is both laughable and ignorant.

[joe]

Besides we still don't know the color of the officer

Irrelevant. The issue is not whether there are Klansmen going about killing black people for sport under the guise of law enforcement, but why police are allowed to get away with such irresponsible, uncalled-for displays of force when, again and again and again, they end up brutalizing and even killing people "accidently." Why isn't there more outrage, when these "isolated incidents" keep happening?

The fact that these episodes frequently happen to minorities goes a long way to explaining that. If these were middle class white people in the suburbs that this kept happening to, there would be much greater outrage and the police would be forces to reform their procedures.

But the general public accepts a certain amount of this behavior from the police, as long as it is confined to "those people."

[tkeiffer]

They knew kids were in the house they said the toys confirmed that kids could be in the house. The only reason i kept posting is because my browser doesn't update this page so i was checking to see if there were any posts, as you again presume to know what i am thinking or doing

[joe]

You just hit refresh.

[tkeiffer]

I was responding to a post about her civil rights when i said the reference about the officer's color. The Lima Police Dept has only killed 2 people in the last 20 years and the other was white and brandishing a sword

[JW]

The gunshot wounds described in press accounts indicate that the baby was shot in the hand AND, by a different round, in the shoulder, after the bullets had struck the mother. This seems to indicate that the officer either saw the decedent face to face with the baby in her arms, or at least from my experience, a shot through the back or side.

It's obvious that in all the commotion, the highly trained, para-military team mistook the baby she was holding for a gun.

It's an honest mistake, it happens all the time, somtimes for just holding a wallet in your hand, or nothing at all. It might be just a shadow, but why risk your neck because of bad lighting? I can see how that would happen.

[joe]

I was responding to a post about her civil rights when i said the reference about the officer's color.

[joe]

Whoa, what happened there?

Civil rights is not a code word for race-related. Civil rights is a term referring to the rights persons enjoy as members of society, including those laid out in the Bill of Rights.

[Bob Dobbs]

The police "found" drugs in Kathryn Johnston's house as well. Drugs that they had planted.

[bp]

this calls for airstrikes on Purdue Inc headquarters for distributing Oxycontin as non-addictive ... as proportionate justice to 50 home raids a year ... and nicotine, more addictive than heroin ... raid the quick-mart dealers with midnight commandos, professional wrestlers in comic-book garb ... bounce the heads of those scum dealers running the cash register on the counter till they split open, just like in the ring ... get 'em boys, before they get us ... and the funds ...

[werls]

dont anyone realize that this loving mother was raising her children in a known crack house. There isnt one person out there that can tell me that there would be any uproar if the victem was a white women but now the attention has been removed from the fact that a drug bust when bad an a n officer was forced to use force. noone knows the details at this time but everyone seems inclined to jump on the racism bandwagon becuase it seems to be an easy fit for their cause this thing disgust me. my thoughts and prayers go out to the children and family, but the fact remains if she had made better secisions in life abot who and where she assosiated with the tradegy would have never happen its about time we stop looking to blame someone elese for dumb shit happening. heres a thought her boyfriend shouldn't have drealt crack??? But no its the cops fault right

[Lost in Paradise]

This vindicates my decision to retire overseas. America, Get Out and Vote!!! In the words of Ronald Reagan, I voted with my feet.

[hayek]

tom keiffer

if you are going to attempt to speak for the locals, try not to sound so ignorant. thanks!

D

[the innominate one]

well, the punishment for making bad decisions should certainly be to be shot to death during a no-knock raid without a trial

[JW]

but the fact remains if she had made better secisions in life abot who and where she assosiated with the tradegy would have never happen its about time we stop looking to blame someone elese for dumb shit happening.

Yes, it's all her fault the cops broke into her home and killed her, while she was holding one of her kids. Better kill her now before she smokes pot again. God only knows what damage she could do then. Another victory in the WoD!

heres a thought her boyfriend shouldn't have drealt crack???

I have a thought, but it would be rude to speak it aloud.

[sef07]

JW be rude.

[Ventifact]

Also, you might want to elaborate on your if i wasn't a convicted felon i would love to be a cop remark, tk. Was the law under which you were convicted unfair (like maybe a law that criminalizes putting chemicals into one's own body in one's own home) and so you don't feel you bear legitimate responsibility? Were you a different person at the time, and you've since turned your life way around? This is very personal, but you brought it up, and as your comments stand as now they are not necessarily to your credit.

Not that lots of posters in this blog don't constantly refer to (felony) offenses with various degrees of enthusiasm (or reverence).

tk, when it comes down to it what you have to answer is this simple question: why didn't police apprehend their suspects outside their house (as no one would stay inside their house permanently, especially if officers waited with a bit of inconspicuosity), instead of in an invasion? Weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each method, allowing real concern for the welfare of innocent children. Home invasion is more dangerous for the officers, so it takes some imagination for me to guess why it was preferable.

Not to sound paranoid or conspiracist, but sometimes these things make me figure the likeliest reason for this scenario is that dirty cops found it necessary to kill criminals they feared would be ratting them out. Who knows.

[joe]

Neither bad mothering nor the boyfriend's criminality lessens the damage done to those children by having their mother shot to death in their home.

And you live in a bizarre world if you think the police would avoid criticism if the mother they gunned down with babe in arms was white.

well, the punishment for making bad decisions should certainly be to be shot to death during a no-knock raid without a trial And since the baby wasn't actually responsible for his mother's decisions, his punishment should be a graze wound.

[Vent]

Let me add:

The mother may or may not have been irresponsible. It is irrelevant. Police should show responsibility for innocent life.

[werls]

i stand humbled before this forum my comment was both rude and incesitive i deeply apologize

[werls]

The mother may or may not have been irresponsible. It is irrelevant. Police should show responsibility for innocent life
true i am sorry for the remark

[sef07]

More details at http://www.limaohio.com/story.php?IDnum=47657 apparently it was a white cop who shot and killed her. There are also now allegations that no drugs were found.

[crimethink]

Yes, the police are the thugs and the drug dealers angels on earth.

I would characterize anyone who shoots an unarmed woman to death while she clutches her 1-year-old as a thug, at the very least. Call me a bleeding heart.

[joe]

It is the basic nature of policing that they are going to have to go into situations in which someone's actions have put others in danger. Rather than excusing dangerous behavior by the police, this reality imposes on them, and on policy-makers, an affirmative duty to see that those police do their business in a manner that adequately takes the potential for harming innocents into account.

That isn't being done when a SWAT team charges into a home with kids and start shooting.

[M]

joe @ 10:56, nicely said, thank you.

Unfortunately, bad laws also extend policing far beyond its basic nature, such that what becomes their statutory business often shouldn't be their business at all.

[juris imprudent]

joe sez If these were middle class white people in the suburbs that this kept happening to, there would be much greater outrage and the police would be forces to reform their procedures.

Eh, joe, I give you.

Suffice to say, NO one is safe from this happening to them.

[Ayn_Randian]

How fucked up a place is Lima, that the citizenry not only accepts this kind of shit, but looks on it as a service to their community?

Did you notice that her name is "Tarika?"

Fuck you joe, you know what you were implying: Lima puts up with it because it affects "Teh Blacks".

[Mike]

Ron Paul for President in 2008!

[ck]

Um....can I just say...HOLY FUCKING CHRIST.

Who can justify a drug policy whose predictable consequence is the shooting of a one year old child?

The War on Drugs needs to end. Maybe full-on legalization isn't the answer. But the war's got to end.

[J sub D]

...not that it matters they did find crack and marijuana in the house,

No obscenities ...No obscenities ... So difficult..

Google Kathryn Johnston. In some jurisdictions the police have drugs available to plant. They sometimes bring them with them on raids. If Kathryn Johnston was a young male, not a 92 year old woman, the police would have been believed without a second thought. We've been down this road way too many times for me to be anything but extremely suspicious of the police here.

[J sub D]

And we already have the unfit mother card. My Xtal ball is two for two. Gosh, at only $300 it sure is correct a lot.

[J sub D]

The co-conspirator accusations should be coming next. Tarika remains silent.

[joe]

Fuck you Randian, that's exactly what I'm implying.

Escept you seem to think my sentiments were limited to Lima.

Oh, and fuck you.

[Juanita]

Putting innocent children at risk is just disgusting. The drug war is supposed to protect children.

[J sub D]

Putting innocent children at risk is just disgusting. The drug war is supposed to protect children.

When you lose Juanita, you're in PR hell.

[TrickyVic]

I know it's a troll's post at 10:40am, but if the bleeding heart, it's all for the children, crowd used this example to fight against the militarization of law enforcement, I'd be all for it.

This brings an interesting debate. When is it ok for the government to kill children? And if it's ok for them, when is it ok for you?

[Dave]

Of course, innocent people might be killed

No innocents, just cops.

[bigbigslacker]

I'd be far more concerned if the bad guy in question was stealing car stereos rather than selling or using crack. Was there something wrong with the crack he was selling? If so, then charge him with fraud, and maybe murder his girlfriend and shoot a few kids while you're at it.

Eventually the old bigots in this country will be dead, and we'll just have to deal with the fewer younger ones.

[Whitey]

Always whitey picking on niggers. The bastards sit on the porch all day drinking 40 oz. and expect everything to be given to them. Call in the guards and shoot the bastards

[Matt Sherman]

Get rid of our ridiculous looser Bush and you'll get rid of the police state in which he has created. In Bush's mind he has made every American a terrorist, and has turned the police against us all. The politicians that allow Bush to continue are to blame not the police. They were probably looking for weed which should be legal anyway. Buck Fush.

[Steph]

Wow, I am quite impressed. It took two whole days for someone to come up with the asinine comment that once again something is Bush's fault. How I keep forgetting that an incident as random as this could be the result of someone who has nothing to do with this. Let the blame game continue...but please don't wait patiently for the facts to come out and the deserved blame take care of itself and in the correct timely manner. Oh no, we can't do that. We must blame anybody and everybody we don't like. Yea, that's it...

[Frieda]

that's BS the cops in Lima are very races

[Robert]

Anyone that listens to to tkeiffer on here is wasting their time. Head over to http://www.limaohio.com and see how this moron won't shut up about anything. Just keep the hate going. There are no real facts on what happened yet, and until people can have a little patience and wait for the reports keeping all this talk going is doing nothing but spreading personal conclusions.

[vanessa]

First let me let say I am very sadden about the mom losing her life and the child being injured. I believe the safety of the children should have been considered in this whole tragic episode, first it is the responsibility of a parent not to put your children nor themselves in a dangerous living environment and the swat team should have use better skills and safety measures in raiding a home where they knew "6 innocent children and mom resided in the home". So I whole both parents and government officials accountable. It takes a hard lesson to learn.

[Elida]

http://Www.limaohio.com/forum under Lima News and Opinion there comments upon comments about this. Tkeiffer is one of the biggest posters about the shooting/raid and it's a joke! Quit trying to prove that Tarika Wilson deserved to be shot and killed in front of her children. You want to make the world a better place then get out there and do something about it instead of hiding behind your pc thinking you know it all. I know you smart asses think she deserved it because she had priors and lived with someone who was dealing, but she didn't deserve to be murdered. The SWAT was there to arrest her boyfriend, she was shot after he was already apprehended and she was upstairs. Those are truths we know. Everything else is just priors and speculation. Who cares Tom Keiffer if she had a warrant in Indiana, why didn't the Ohio cops turn her in then? They knew she was there. No they just killed her instead and left her family broken.

[joe]

Accidents happen!?!

Especially when the perpetrators are not held accountable for their crimes, remember absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I find it difficult to understand why the American people allow such crime to be committed under the color of law, against innocent women and children. We are not governed, we are ruled by fascists. The shameful, disgusting acts of my government against innocent victims make me ashamed to be a citizen of the USA.

[Melody]

I have read the thread above and Lima is a very twisted different place. In Lima Tarika is the one on trial. Bringing up her past and asking why she had so many children. If you would like an inside to the brains of the people in lima go to limanews.com and you can read a few threads on this situation. Let me know what you all think. Keep in mind Tarika suffered from two gun shot wounds to the back her son was injured and it all went down in front of all of her children.

[Elida]

http://Www.limaohio.com/forum Look for the many threads under the News section for Lima. It's a clustermess of whites thinking they are holier then thou and blacks calling it racially motivated. They need some more voices of reason. People are blaming Ms. Wilson for being shot and killed when the woman was UPSTAIRS with her baby and her boyfriend was ALREADY in custody downstairs. Her past is being drug thru the mud and it's all disgusting!

[born and raised in Lima]

I live in Lima. The population may be only 40,000 but over half of that population is ignorant, poorly educated, drug users and dealers. Do I feel bad that this young mother was killed? Yes. Do I feel bad that this baby was injured? Yes. Do I feel that the police and SWAT are at fault? NO. It was an accident. And it never would've happened if there had not been drug deals happening inside that house, and by people who lived there. That woman put her children and herself at risk EVERY DAY by living with that man. SHE is to blame. And the reason Lima has a SWAT team is because there are FAR to many houses and apartments just like that one in Lima. Half the town if full of ignorant, uneducated, lazy, and corrupt people (both white AND black). Who just want to sit on their asses in their shabby falling down houses and do drugs. I blame them! And I'm glad that none of our city's finest were injured.

[Katya]

I was just browsing through the comments here, and what puzzles me is that no one has mentioned the fact that she (Tarika) exposed her 6 children to violence by placing them in a home where drug use was obvious. I am a mother and my son will NEVER be in a home where illegal drugs are stored or used. I think someone needs to question the skills of parenting here. I am very sorry that it happened, but the police have a job to do. How about everyone get upset with the man that had the drugs and placed that whole family in danger, not the officer who was doing his job to keep it off of the streets.

[MKAustin]

I am Tarika's big sister and no matter what she did or did not do, she did not deserve to die and my nephew did not deserve to be shot. Say what you will everyone has an opinion. I happen to be a Lw Enforcement Officer and accident or not, LPD SWAT was in the wrong. Let's keep in mind that there was a young life lost and several others changed forever.