A Birmingham, Alabama, man was shot and killed by a member of the Homewood, Alabama, tactical squad (SWAT team) as the team executed a pre-dawn search warrant on his residence Friday morning. The as yet unidentified man becomes the 8^th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

[image:1 align:left]According to The Birmingham News, citing police sources, although the apartment building raided is in Birmingham, it was the Homewood SWAT team that carried out the raid. It is not clear why.

A police spokesman said the shooting happened at 6:15 a.m. Officers entered the apartment and a man immediately fired at them with a handgun. Officers returned fire, hitting him. He was pronounced dead at UAB Hospital at 6:54 a.m.

Police did not say whether they had knocked on the door or announced their presence or whether it was a "no knock" raid with immediate forced entry.

A second man in the apartment was detained. There was no mention of any drugs being found.

A commenter responding to harsh remarks on the newspaper's web site claimed to be a child of the man killed by police and also claimed that his father did not shoot at them, but that his brother (presumably the second man in the apartment) did. Here is the entire comment from "Luh Brian":

"My Daddy Is Not In Hell I Know He Is With The Lord Because Even Though He Dealt Drugs He Was Kindhearted He May Not Have Been The Best Father In The World But He Was Made Sure all of his children where always taken care of.... So You Should Not Talk About Him In That Manner. It's Already Hard To Deal With His Death But On Top Of That All You People Act As Though He Was Some Type Of God Damn Super Villain , Saying Such Hurtful Things.....It Just Breaks My Heart To See Y'all Say Such Awful Things About Daddy A Man Which NoNE of you knew . This Story Is Not Accurate My Father Did Not Shoot At Police Although My Older Brother Did.....But That's Something He Taught Us Long Ago 'Protect This House,' And That's All They Did . But I Will File A Lawsuit On Homewood P.D Best Believe That.

"R.I.P Daddy

"6/9/76- 2/20/15"