Pennsylvania SWAT Team Kills Meth Cooker in Drug Raid
[[Editor's Note: This year, Drug War Chronicle is trying to track every death directly attributable to drug law enforcement during the year. We can use your help. If you come across a news account of a killing related to drug law enforcement, please send us an email at [email protected].]
A member of a Pennsylvania state police SWAT team shot and killed a Wayne Township man during an early morning drug raid Wednesday. Jeffrey Wolfe, 56, becomes the 24th person to be killed in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.
[image:1 align:right caption:true]According to police, members of the state police Special Emergency Response Team were executing a search warrant for a meth lab. They identified themselves as police, then entered the house and encountered Wolfe in a bedroom, where he pointed a loaded pump-action shotgun at them. One of the team members then opened fire on Wolfe, striking him twice in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A woman who police have not identified was also in the home. She was not injured, and police said she is part of the ongoing investigation.
An affidavit of probable cause attached to the warrant said a confidential informant had made three controlled meth buys from Wolfe in recent weeks. The SERT team was called on to execute the warrant because of the "paranoia associated with a long-time user of methamphetamine," and the presence of guns and an active meth lab. Police said using the SERT team was the "prudent" thing to do.
Troopers found an operational meth lab, chemicals, and another weapon at the scene, as well as video surveillance equipment. Police said Wolfe had a monitor in his bedroom to see who was approaching the house, but they didn't say it it was turned on.
The unnamed state trooper who shot Wolfe has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the killing. That will be handled by the Schuykill County district attorney's office.
Comments
In Soviet Russia, you break
In Soviet Russia, you break law.
In Amerika, law breaks you!!
Go to the article, read the comments section. Hard to believe how many people actively cheer this man's death.
And what the hell kind of justice system to we have? It's acceptable to break into somebody's house and shoot them dead before they ever had a chance to a jury trial, although that would've been kangaroo court. Still, better than being dead.
Who knows what really happened? In a country where the police have no incentive at all to tell the truth in any situation and have no incentives to not lie, we'll never know how many times they announced their presence, if they announced their presence, if the guy had the shotgun in his hand, etc.
This is a tragedy in my book.
According to this article,
According to this article, the guy pointed a shotgun at them...honestly..what else are they supposed to do?
According to the article, he
According to the article, he pointed a loaded shotgun at them..in all honesty..what else are they supposed to do?
In reply to According to the article, he by B (not verified)
According to the article =
According to the article = whatever the police say.
Well, for one, they could stop being statist assholes and taking pleasure in invading the personal space of others. If I burst into your house in the middle of the night, you pull a gun on me and then I shoot you, I would be vilified by the public and media unless I had a badge. Then, for some reason, people have this attitude that, 'Well, the guy must've done something wrong and therefore deserved to get shot.'
You know, there's a reason why no crimes except murder get capital punishment. Even the most hardcore of the hardcore holier-than-thou moralists can admit that the only time the state should execute somebody is when a person kills another person. Well, okay, let's have at it then. This guy was cooking meth, but got shot instead. Why is this not considered murder? It was even pre-meditated. Time for somebody to get capital punishment and I'm not talking about any meth cooker.
This article is no different than any other online or print newspaper. It just regurgitates whatever the police say and prints it as fact.
Think of it this way. Here are two possible scenarios.
1) Police clearly identify themselves as police by shouting as they claim they did. Man is aware that police have entered his house. Man decides to pull shotgun out and point it at police. Police shoot him with two bullets before man has chance to pull trigger.
This is basically the police account of the story. They want you to believe this guy was a complete moron that chose to pull a shotgun out knowing full-well it was police at his door, a situtation he would surely not survive.
2) Police bang on the door and identify themselves once or twice. Man, barely waking up while hearing initial shouting, has no idea what's going on and is still very groggy. Upon hearing people in his home, pulls out shotgun to defend family from invaders and proceeds to get shot by police.
3) Police don't identify themselves. Man first awakes and hears people in his house. Police enter his room. Man reaches for gun in a dark room where it's difficult to tell who is who. Man gunned down before he even has a chance to point it.
To me, scenarios 2 and 3 don't involve a person acting irrationally while 1 does. Ask yourself, which of them is the least likely of the 3 to have actually happened? Leave it to the cops to assassinate the character out of whomever they just personally assassinated.
The crime police have a specific job to do.
Their job is to investigate crimes that have occurred, find out who did it, and arrest that person. We do NOT hire them to also be prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. We NEED to make them stick to their jobs and quit taking on those other "jobs" in oh so many cases.
Drug arrests should not happen at all, but since the statutes say drugs are illegal, we know arrests will continue. However, the way they SHOULD occur is (only) after a full investigation (not merely a "tip" or the "word" of a snitch, a REAL investigation) the police then get an arrest warrant, stake out the home, and two officers arrest the suspect as he exits the home in broad daylight, transport him to the cop-shop, process him, and jail him until the arraignment. From that point it is up to the prosecutor and the courts to deal with him until the trial is over at which point he either goes free or is put in the hands of "correction" officers. Dynamic entry should be reserved for real hostage situations and mass murderers only, and cops should NEVER shoot a suspect unless innocent (not cop) lives are at stake.
These guidelines are only common sense. Do you agree?
Controlled buy
Just out of curiosity what are the police buying meth for? Don't they know it's a crime? And meth destroys lives of a lot of good people on both sides of the law.
Something to be considered,
First I get it, Law enforcement is the self righteous long arm of the corporate system. But some of you are talking out of your a@@ 's Meth is actually dangerous. Do not dare mistake it for pot or even cocaine. Crack will F you up way less. There are certain controlled quantities than are medically beneficial for certain conditions, But give it to the general uninformed public and you get true addicts very quickly. Of the 'sell their own mother' variety. Once they have drained the bank account and lost their jobs, robbed family and friends Hopefully they will lose their kids before they get a chance to watch daddy shooting up, or the kids find the stash, Or before it occurs to them to pimp out their daughter to buy more meth.
I believe law steps in way too much and in cases where they should never tread. Meth is something else entirely, It makes you insane, inhuman. It makes you not care about anything but getting more meth.
About the scenarios, You forgot # 4
That the meth cook that got shot was sitting in the dark polishing the blue off the gun for 6 hours before the cops showed up.
I know which scenario I would place my money on.
Why do cops never get shot in these ambushes?
Are all these cops so well trained and superhuman, so fast and competent that, they can drop in on an ambush and never even take a shot? This goes on in almost every case like this. These ppl pointing all these weapons in their own bedrooms rarely if, ever get off a shot.
I promise you that even the most inept gun owner with a scattergun will get off at least a blast into a wall. These ppl are getting nothing but , a bullet in the head.
Besides if, I were to be foolish enough to want to ambush the police I wouldn't be in the bed or a bedroom but, at the door where they come in. Or other strategic place like not even in the house to start with.. I find it hard to believe the most strategic place to ambush cops coming to arrest you is from your bed or bedroom of any home.
I also find it hard to believe that, anyone other than hardened criminals would want to take on a paramilitarized group of men trained to kill.
The whole raid thing is a bs plan to kill. It has nothing to do with due process. It's an eradication measure meant to draw resistance. Just like the bent arm and knee in the back during an arrest. Stop resisting! stop resisting!. When all you're doing is trying to stop your arm from breaking at the socket and trying to breathe at the same time but, the 14 cops encircling you so, no one can see what they are doing to you, pull out their best pain enforcement.
...and no, I'm not a criminal but, I have seen the police in action. It's despicable what they call justice these days.
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