Police conducting an undercover, street-level, reverse drug sting in Putnam County, Florida, shot and killed one of their targets Friday night as he attempted to drive away from the scene. Andrew Anthony Williams, a 48-year-old black man, becomes the 11th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to local press accounts, all relying on law enforcement sources, deputies and detectives from the Putnam County Sheriff's Office were conducting a "reverse sting" where they posed as drug dealers, sold unwary customers small amounts of drugs, and then arrested them.

Deputies had successfully sold drugs to and arrested 10 people, but when they identified themselves and tried to arrest Williams, who was number 11, he declined. "[H]e drove away quickly and hit a tree," the St. Augustine Record reported.  "The man next backed up toward the deputies, then put the vehicle into drive and turned toward some of them, the Sheriff’s Office said. Four deputies fired at the oncoming vehicle almost simultaneously, the Sheriff's Office said."

News 4 Jax had it this way: "…when they tried to arrest Williams, he took off in a blue SUV and, swerving to avoid deputies, ran into a tree. Williams then backed up and tried to take off again toward deputies causing four of them to open fire on Williams SUV, hitting him an unknown number of times."  

Williams was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. One deputy was wounded in the gunfire, but that bullet came from another deputy's gun, according to the Sheriff's Office. (In the headline for its story about the incident, News 4 Jax neglected to mention that anyone had been killed, going with "Putnam County deputy hit by bullet fired at suspect.")

The Sheriff's Office did not identify the four deputies involved in the shooting, but was quick to make available Williams' criminal history, which including charges for drugs, fleeing, eluding, resisting arrest, and battery on a law enforcement officer.

The four deputies are on paid administrative leave.

This killing should raise a few questions, both about the nature of the operation itself and about what actually occurred.

Reverse drug stings are a controversial tactic, sometimes arguably justifiable at the higher echelons of the drug trade, where selling sizeable quantities of drugs to a player to see where they go help crack a drug ring, but that logic isn’t at work here, where the only result is to round up some street drug buyers and drag them into the criminal justice system. Is having deputies pretend to be drug dealers to bust small-time users really the county's best use of its law enforcement resources?

And then there's the no-witness "he was going to run me over" defense used by the police to justify the killing. It happens not infrequently. Williams may have decided that getting busted on a minor dope charge was worth trying to murder a group of police officers with his vehicle. But could it have been that he was just trying to get away?

It'll be up to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigates officer-involved killings, to get to the bottom of it. 

A Volusia County sheriff's deputy on a dawn SWAT team pot raid shot and killed an unarmed resident of the home Tuesday. Derek Cruice, 26, becomes the 10th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Cruice was unarmed and no weapons were found in the house. Police did find about nine ounces of marijuana, as well as a scale, a drug ledger, marijuana smoking pipes, plastic bags and about $3,000 in cash.

Sheriff Ben Johnson said that Deputy Todd Raible, a member of the Sheriff's Office SWAT Team, shot Cruice in the face as the SWAT team came through the door of the residence at 6:30am.

"They (deputies) were met with resistance and a shooting occurred," Johnson said without offering further detail. He said he could not elaborate because his office had not yet interviewed Deputy Raible.

But sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson added that Raible fired his weapon after perceiving Cruice's actions as a threat.

Cruice was pronounced dead at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City.

"The deputy, he's all right, actually he is very shaken," Johnson offered.

Sheriff Johnson said Cruice was listed in the search warrant as the subject of an ongoing "narcotics" investigation. He was one of six adults -- four men and two women -- in the house when deputies arrived.

Matt Grady, 24, was another one of them. He said he was awakened by banging on the door and opened it.

"A bunch of guys came around the corner and they are pushing me down," Grady said. "And as I was going down on my knee I heard gunfire," he told The News-Journal.

Steven Cochran, 24, was another resident. He said Cruice was not resisting anything.

"He had no weapons on him or in the house," Cochran said. "Nobody was making any kind of resistance or keeping them from doing their job." Cruice had been working as a delivery driver at Monster Pizza in Deltona. His coworker, Thomas Figueroa, who had known him for nine years, stopped by the scene and broke down crying behind the yellow crime scene tape.

"He is not the kind of person that would do that (attack a deputy)," he said, adding that the pizza shop had closed for the day to mark Cruice's death.

Deputy Raible, 36, is now on administrative leave, as is standard for deputy-involved shootings. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the death because a police officer was involved.

Five people have been killed by police doing drug related enforcement operations in four days. They become the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th persons to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

In South Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, police shot and killed heroin user David Kassick, 59, Monday after a traffic stop turned into a chase and "altercation." According to PennLive, citing police sources, Hummelstown Police Officer Lisa Mearkle attempted to pull over Kassick's vehicle for an expired inspection sticker, but Kassick first drove away, then got out of his car and fled.

"An altercation ensued between (Mearkle) and (Kassick), shots were fired at the scene and (Kassick) succumbed to those injuries," according to a search warrant police obtained to search his car for drugs and drug paraphernalia.

The warrant does not provide details of the "altercation," nor does it say whether Kassick was armed.

A hypodermic needle was found beside Kassick's body, and a spoon with residue "known to be drug paraphernalia" and some Suboxone strips were found on his body. His brother told police that Kassick "had a known heroin addiction and related that he had relapsed approximately two weeks ago," the search warrant stated.

Kassick had a history of drug-related criminal convictions and had spent time in federal prison for heroin dealing a decade ago.

State police are conducting an investigation into the shooting, and Dauphin County DA Ed Marsico will then decide whether the use of deadly force was justified.

In Tempe, Arizona, police shot and killed two men Wednesday, one of whom was wanted for a probation violation on drug charges. The other was a man traveling with him.

According to ABC 15 News, citing police sources, a US Marshals task force was attempting to take Salvador Muna into custody when he hopped into a vehicle driven by his friend, Joaquin Hernandez, and fled. Police executed a maneuver to pin the vehicle and said Muna then pulled out a weapon and pointed it at officers.

Four officers, one from Chandler, one from Tempe, and two from Mesa then opened fire. Witnesses reported hearing at least six shots.

Muna was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver, Hernandez, was also wounded. Police said he was "hurt in the crossfire," but it is unclear if Muna ever actually fired his weapon. Hernandez died a short time later at a local hospital.

In Orlando, Florida, undercover narcotics officers shot and killed one man at an apartment complex and took another into custody Wednesday night.

According to WKMG Local 6 News, undercover narcs Yong Hall and Amanda White approached two men at the complex as they were following up on an unrelated case. "There was a confrontation" that led to the officers shooting and killing one man, identified as Izzy Colon, and taking a second man, Ricardo Caban, into custody on charges of reckless display of a firearm and possession of a firearm charges.

The Orlando Sentinel had a bit more detail. It quoted police as saying the two officers were in plainclothes working the drug detail when they heard gunfire at the apartment complex. They took cover behind cars in the parking lot and shortly saw Colon, 37, and Caban, 34, coming toward them.

When Officers White and Hall confronted the two men, Caban immediately dropped his gun, laid on the ground, and surrendered. But Colon "refused to surrender and his actions caused Detective Hall to fire his weapon," Caban's arrest report said.

Police did not specify exactly what action caused Hall to shoot Colon. They did say that both Caban and Colon were armed.

Colon's family told WKMG Local 6 that he was not armed. "My brother was not playing with guns -- that's not true," one family member said.

In Calimesa, California, a Riverside County Sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man engaged in "illegal narcotics activity" Thursday evening.

According to NBC Los Angeles, citing police sources, believing they were seeing a drug deal in progress, deputies approached two men standing next to a vehicle. One of the men immediately followed deputies' demands and was detained.

The other man then allegedly removed a hand gun from his pocket and was then shot and killed. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Yucaipa/Calimesa News Mirror identified the dead man as John Sawyer, 36, of Yucaipa.

The newspaper also reported that the hand gun police saw was actually a replica hand gun and that there was an SKS-style assault rifle in the vehicle. There was no mention of whether any drugs were found.

The Tampa Bay Tribune has an explosive expose of the police-snitch culture there, a revenge hack attack on Columbia, Missouri; Michigan's governor signs a welfare drug test bill, and more. Let's get to it:

Marijuana Policy

Wichita Decriminalizers Say They Have Enough Signatures to Make Ballot. A group that wants to put a marijuana reform initiative on the April 7 municipal ballot in Wichita says that it now has more than enough signatures to qualify. Kansas for Change said it will hand in signatures next week. The group had tried last summer to make the ballot, but came up 36 signatures short after a high number of signatures were disqualified.

Pot on the Agenda for Maine's Legislature. At least four marijuana bills will be before legislators when they return next month. Rep. Diane Russell (D-Portland) will reintroduce her perennial legalization bill, the state Department of Public Safety is proposing a marijuana DUI bill, and there will be legislation seeking to expand the state's medical marijuana program.

Medical Marijuana

More Medical Marijuana Bills Coming in South Carolina. State Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), author of a successful high-CBD medical marijuana bill this year, says he will be back with three more bills next year. One would create laws for growing high-CBD, low-THC marijuana, another would clean up language in the state's hemp laws, and the third is a full-fledged medical marijuana bill.

Drug Testing

Michigan Governor Signs Welfare Drug Testing Law. Gov. Rick Snyder (R) last Friday signed a pair of bills that will mandate drug screening of adult welfare recipients and drug testing of those suspected of using drugs. The bills, House Bill 4118 and Senate Bill 275, would create a pilot program in three as yet unnamed counties. People who refuse to take a drug test would lose benefits for six months, while those who test positive would be referred to treatment -- and more drug testing. Benefits would be restored after the person passes a drug test.

Law Enforcement

Tampa Bay Times Blows the Lid Off Sleazy Informant Culture That Got a Pot Smoker Killed. Wow. The confidential informant who pointed Tampa police toward Jason Westcott, 29, who was shot and killed by a police SWAT team as it raided his home, has come clean to The Tampa Bay Times in a lengthy piece in which he admits lying to his police handlers about drug buys, telling them about drug buys that never actually occurred, expresses sorrow for the role his snitching played in Westcott's killing, and says police let him get away with his exploits because they wanted to make drug busts. Westcott was killed in May by SWAT team members who had entered his home while he was sleeping, then shot and killed him when he woke up and grabbed a weapon to fend off intruders. Westcott had sole miniscule amounts of pot to the informant on several occasions; when police raided his home, they found 0.2 grams of weed. The entire piece is worth the read -- if you can stomach it. Click on the link to do so.

Columbia, MO, Municipal Web Site Hacked Over 2010 SWAT Raid that Killed Dog. The municipal web site, gocolumbiamo.com, was offline from last Thursday night until noon Saturday after an anonymous hacker dubbing himself "Bitcoin Baron" unleashed a DDOS attack on it. The hacker posted a video of a February 2010 SWAT drug raid that terrorized a local family and resulted in the shooting death of their pet. Bitcoin Baron said he wanted to expose how SWAT teams work: "They're on a rampage and kill what they want and get away with it and know it too because they hide behind a badge/uniform," he wrote. "Yes, I am aware that it happened four years ago, but I wanted to let everyone know what the SWAT teams are like." Bitcoin Baron also took down the web site of local media outlet KOMU 8 News after it credited the DDOS attack against the city to Anonymous instead of him.

International

Mexican Priest Killed After Accusing Guerrero Drug Gang of Murder. Father Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta, kidnapped a week ago today from his seminary, was found murdered Christmas day near Ciudad Altamirano. The priest had earlier this year accused the Guerreros Unidos drug gang of kidnapping killing 43 teachers' college students earlier this year. His body was found by police searching for the missing students.

Mephedrone on the March in India. The use of the synthetic stimulant drug mephedrone is spreading in India. It first became popular among drug users in Mumbai and Bangalore, and is now gaining popularity in Indore. The drug is unregulated and not illegal in India, and is available at about one-twentieth of the cost of cocaine.