(CA) SWAT team kills 11-yr old boy

R

RH

New member
This is really bad, folks. Conspicuously absent is any mention of the occupants being armed or dangerous, that would warrant a hot-trigger no-knock raid.

SWAT Team Kills 11-Year-Old Boy
MODESTO, Calif. (AP) -- An 11-year-old boy was fatally shot by a member of a SWAT team during a drug raid at his parents' home.
Alberto Sepulveda, a seventh-grader, was shot in the back Wednesday when an officer accidentally fired his shotgun, said Police Chief Roy Wasden.
David Hawn, a 21-year department veteran and a SWAT team member for more than 18 years, was placed on paid leave pending an investigation.
Wasden would not give any other details of the shooting, which occurred in Modesto, about 75 miles east of San Francisco.
The boy's father, Moises Sepulveda, was arrested and booked on charges of methamphetamine trafficking. The boy's mother and two siblings, ages 8 and 14, were also home during the raid.
The Drug Enforcement Agency said the raid had been part of a 9-month investigation into methamphetamine trafficking and that 14 people had been arrested Wednesday during 14 separate raids. Four others were being sought.
http://www.newsday.com/ap/text/national/ap245.htm
 
I agree - it seems a damned shame and my heart goes out to the family and the officer, but I wouldn't rely on anything in the media on which to base any evaluations as to whether this type of raid was justified. It may not have been, but then again, it may have. The one constant is the unreliability of most reporters on this type of story.
 
Thank God they got those evil drugs off the street ! As a good amerikan sheeple I can't help but be grateful for the drug war ! I think I'll go call the DEA and turn myself in, I have a script for tylenol 3's on me right now ! What hero's they all are... / sarcasm
 
Assuming first reports are accurate ... actually, the 'one constant' from my perspective is that people will justify this crime by extolling the virtues of the War on Some Drugs, they'll cite the parents' complicity in the murder because of their involvement with drugs, and they'll talk about the need for better SWAT training and funding.

IMHO, LEO's that participate in crap like this are definitely JBT's. Sorry, but I'm not going to mince words anymore. The War on Some Drugs might as well be run by Nazi's for all I care. I'm disgusted with this crap, and these no-knocks should be answered in kind.

Just collateral damage, right? I'm disgusted by what some LEO's have become, and I'm disappointed that the majority (who are good, decent, brave people) won't rebel against this kind of bloodshed. Good people are no longer good people when they stand by and do nothing about such a dismal policy, IMHO.

Regards from AZ
 
If I was the officer with the shotgun - I'ld have turned it on myself.

A boys life for a handful of meth. Small price for the State to pay.
Thank heavens this wasnt the wrong house this time!
The State should be handing drugs out for free on every corner to keep the populace properly medicated so that too many people don't wake up.

Oh - My Bad - the State doesn't need to... People just dont care.
 
Whatever happened to the training maxim of "keep your finger OFF the F*****G trigger", if highly trained black clad ninja SWAT bunnies go bang when they shouldn't what chance everyone else. I doubt a private citizen who killed a kid with an AD/ND would be on paid leave.

Can't help but imagine the scene, a shotgun for Pete's sake, no doubt loaded with OO, must have been beyond words for the parents, nothing is worth a dead child. First person who blames the parents for bringing it on themselves gains my intense disrespect.

Mike H
 
I agree with everyone here both about keeping your finger of the trigger and that if it had been me I probably would have swallowed the barrel right after realizing what I had done.
Having said that, let me say this: I just called a guy I know who is an officer in the Modesto PD (used to live out that way) and he happened to be the operations officer of the day yesterday when it all went down. All he would tell me is that the MPD were "assisting" a federal agency in serving a warrant and that it was NOT a no-knock raid. He doesn't know when things turned hot, but was told that it went hot and locked *after* entry for an unspecified reason. The officer who shot the child is a basket case at the moment and evidently MPD are tossing the whole blame into the fed's lap.
 
Can you say "Sammy Weaver"?

And no way in Hades would I take myself out, if I fu@k#d up like that!! Bad enough a person's ineptitude caused one life, ne need to take another for personal guilt. Take the heat like a man, or whatever.

Take your turn in jail, like those you were there to place there(jail). Don't deny society the Justice something like this surely needs. Never know, you might have a friendly Jury, like OJ did.

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"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... in the several kingdoms of Europe ... the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms" (James Madison, the Federalist Papers, No. 46).

"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in theregion of ignorance that tyranny begins." -Benjamin Franklin

[This message has been edited by Donny (edited September 14, 2000).]
 
HOW THE HELL DO YOU "ACCIDENTALLY" SHOOT SOMEONE IN THE BACK!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

Trained proffessional my A**! Another wanna-bee-a-big-tough dude IMHOP.

Did 30days in county on a misdemeanor traffic violation a few years back...saw the same 'attitude' from the guards there. Many of whom were on the SWAT team.
 
"Keep your *&%$@#$ finger of the trigger"?

How about keeping your $%*&# mitts off the Constitution?!?

From the Ruby Ridge Idaho Boundary County indictment (which was dumped by the Federal judge after Reno "federalized" the case) we all know that since the officer was acting within the scope of his duties (enforcing laws which violate the 9th Amendment), all is well in Mayberry.

Rick
 
PUKEING ALL OVER THE LIVING ROOM.ACCIDENT?Not with supposed profensionals.Nothing will be done.A lawsuit will be paid off by the taxpayers and it will bus as usual.Only another dead civilian,one of them, not one of us.

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Bob--- Age and deceit will overcome youth and speed.
I'm old and deceitful.
 
This is not cause for anger; it's cause for great sadness for all concerned. These no-knocks are simply not worth the collateral damage...to our citizens, to our liberties or to our cops. (The cop is hardly a "victim" here, but I feel for him, nonetheless.) It's gotta stop!
Rich
 
Who WAS Sammy Weaver? He was the son of Randy Weaver and was also shot in the back by the federales.

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You have to be there when it's all over. Otherwise you can't say "I told you so."

Better days to be,

Ed
 
I wonder how many of these stories we NEVER hear about, I would assume this is FAR from a freak occurance!

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Dead [Black Ops]
 
Fellow officers were interviewed and explained that it was just a mistake that could have happened to any one of them.
 
Shooting Women And Toddlers. And (Fla) hostages and/or bystanders. The training does not seem to live up to the job on a nationwide level. Some are good (Houston comes to mind) many are bad. And even the good ones blow it big time on occasion.

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Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club
68-70
true story, a Union Gen. once said "Don't worry about those Rebs. They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..SPLAT.
 
No where in this article does it say it was a no-knock raid.

Mike H,
I might gain your disrespect but the parents do deserve some blame. I have a child and if I do something stupid that causes my child to injured or killed it is also my fault. For example, if I don't have my child in car seat or belted in and I get in an accident that is not my fault and my kid launches through the window it is also my fault. If these parents are selling drugs out of their house they are idiots. I am not saying this excuses a botched raid by the police. What I am saying is if parents do not care about themselves they still need to care for and protect their children. If the parents want to sell or use drugs I could care less, but don't do it around their kids.

[This message has been edited by mrat (edited September 15, 2000).]
 
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