August 11, 2005
Another drug-war triumph
Apparently possession of two ounces of marijuana and what now appears to have been a BB gun now warrants the death penalty:
SUNRISE – Police seized 2 ounces of marijuana at the home of Anthony Diotaiuto after shooting him 10 times, according to information on the drug raid released Tuesday.
… Diotaiuto, 23, was killed hours after he got home from work by a SWAT team looking for drugs. Friends and family say Diotaiuto worked two jobs, went to church regularly, and was dedicated to giving himself and his mother, Marlene Whittier, a better life.
Lt. Robert Voss, spokesman for the Sunrise Police Department, gave this account of the raid:
The SWAT team knocked on Diotaiuto’s door and “announc[ed] their presence” before smashing in his door about 6:15 a.m. They found Diotaiuto in his living room and ordered him to “freeze” and get on the ground.
Instead, Voss said, Diotaiuto fled to his bedroom and “armed himself” with a loaded handgun. Voss said it is unclear whether Diotaiuto pointed the gun at officers.
… Neighbors who said they were up at 6:15 a.m. when the raid occurred said they heard the crash of the front door being smashed, but no yelling announcing the presence of police.
Rudy Strauss, Diotaiuto’s next-door neighbor, came to his window when his wife noticed the SWAT team descend on the house in the sleepy Sunrise Golf Village. No words were exchanged outside Diotaiuto’s home, he said.
“I heard this loud bang, and I saw a flash,” Strauss said Tuesday. “I never heard them say ‘Police.’ If somebody were pounding on the door, I would definitely hear that, or if they yelled, ‘Police, police!’”
… “Nothing adds up,” Brian Kickbush, Whittier’s boyfriend, said during the visitation at Fred Hunter Funeral Home. “If they announced themselves, I guess all the neighbors are all liars.”
More drug-war insanity here.
Posted by Stephen at 12:44 AM in Drugs | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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