Follow
That
Story:
Police
Shooter
Indicted
in
Tennessee
"Wrong
Address"
Killing
11/10/00
Last month, the Week Online ran a feature piece on the ever-growing number of people killed by police enforcing the drug laws (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/156.html#policeshootings). The killing of 64-year-old John Adams in Lebanon, Tennessee, was one of the cases highlighted. Adams was shot to death in his living room after he allegedly fired a shotgun at the armed, masked, and unidentified intruders who broke down his front door on the night of October 4th. The police had the wrong house. Their search warrant was for the address next door, but contained a description of the Adams' house instead of the actual target. Relatives and friends told the Daily Tennessean the couple thought they were victims of a home invasion robbery when the 10:00pm raid commenced. In most of the cases mentioned in the original article, the bottom line was "the police shooter was cleared of any wrongdoing by [the local] grand jury." Not this time. A local grand jury has indicted raid planner Steve Nokes, head of the department's narcotics unit, on felony charges of reckless homicide, evidence tampering, and aggravated perjury in the case. Prosecutors said Nokes was responsible for sending the raiders to the wrong house and that he lied on the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant for the raid. Nokes had surveilled the targeted house and was present during the raid. Nokes has already been fired from the Lebanon Police Department. The three officers who actually conducted the raid, two of whom shot Adams, remain on the force on paid administrative leave. Another who surveilled the house with Nokes is on unpaid leave. Adams was black, while Nokes and two out of three of the other officers involved were white, a fact that has heightened racial tensions in the town. Lebanon Mayor Don Fox has appointed a citizens' review board to investigate the killing, but local chapters of civil rights and civil liberties groups including the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of United Latin-American Citizens, have joined together to monitor and challenge the board's mandate and make up.
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