Four Dead in Drug War Killings in Five Days, Including One Police Officer

Guns and drugs are a bad combination. Or, more precisely, drug prohibition in a nation where guns are freely available has tremendous potential for fatal conflicts between drug users and sellers and the police who are out to get them. Attempting to enforce widely-flouted drug prohibition laws in a society as heavily armed as this one is a recipe for violent encounters. When the war on drugs intersects with the Second Amendment, the bullets fly.

During the five years the Chronicle has been tracking drug war deaths, they have occurred at a rate of about one a week. Not so far this month, though.

The number of police officers killed in the drug war has typically been a handful each year, but with four officers already killed so far this year, 2016 could end up being an atypically bloody year for police, too.

Here are the three fatal encounters that left four dead in the drug war since the month began:

On September 2, in Alamogordo, New Mexico, a wanted drug suspect and an Alamagordo police officer died in a shootout after a foot chase. Joseph Moreno, 38, died at the scene, while Officer Clint Corvinus, 33, succumbed to his wounds at a local hospital. Corvinus and another officer encountered Moreno while on patrol, but he took running when they tried to detain him. Gunfire broke out, and the two men were fatally wounded. The New Mexico State Police are investigating. Moreno had a lengthy criminal history, including a stint in state prison in 2001. Since then, he had been arrested numerous times, mostly on drug charges, but also for burglary, robbery, escape, and conspiracy to attempt to commit a violent felony. He had three warrants outstanding when the shootout occurred and was scheduled for court on drug charges in December. During a press conference the same day as the shooting, Alamogordo Police Chief Daron Syling said police had received threats after Moreno's death from people they believe are associated with him. One man was arrested after showing up at the hospital and threatening police.

On September 6, in Omaha, Nebraska, Douglas County sheriff's deputies shot and killed David L. Anderson, 25, as they attempted to arrest him on a felony warrant for possession of a controlled substance. The circumstances are not clear, but deputies reported they were being fired on before opening fire on the black pickup truck Anderson was driving. Witnesses reported deputies pulling Anderson from the truck after it crashed. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police did not say if a weapon had been recovered. The deputies involved are now on leave and the Omaha Police Department is investigating the incident.

On September 7, in East Lakeland, Florida, members of a Polk County Sheriff's Office "high intensity drug task force" shot and killed Francis Perry, 32, after he refused officers' orders to exit his vehicle and then opened fire with a handgun, police said. The incident began when task force members on patrol spotted Perry driving a black Dodge Charger and recognized him as someone with outstanding warrants. They followed him until he parked in the driveway of a house, and he refused to roll down his tinted window or exit the vehicle. As officers prepared to break the window glass, Perry reached for a 9mm pistol he was wearing on his hip and opened fire. Four officers returned fire, firing 28 rounds, with five striking Perry, who died shortly thereafter at a nearby hospital. "We didn't choose to shoot Francis Perry," Sheriff Perry Judd said at a news conference. "He chose for us to shoot him, and we accommodated him... We can only surmise, ladies and gentlemen, that this guy decided he wanted to end his life here, that this was really a suicide by cop." Perry had a long criminal history and more than $5,000 of meth in his car, police said.