February 17, 1999
From The Topeka Capital-Journal
letters@cjnetworks.com
http://cjonline.com/
From The Associated PressAUTHORITIES RELEASE ACCOUNT OF SHOOTING, SAY MARIJUANA FOUND
IN HOUSE
OSAWATOMIE—A police raid that left an Osawatomie man dead turned up what appeared
to be a small amount of marijuana, investigators said.
Willie Heard, 46, was killed early Saturday—the day before
his birthday—when he picked up a .22-caliber rifle and confronted officers who burst
into his house.
Relatives said Tuesday that the search warrant authorized officers to look for crack
cocaine, crack pipes, scales and other paraphernalia. Officers searched the house with a
dog and found two or three remnants of marijuana cigarettes, said Gary Heard,
Willie Heard’s brother.
"That was already smoked marijuana," Gary Heard said. "There were small
little cigarettes."
William Delaney, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation spokesman, released this account of
the raid:
Officers from the Osawatomie and Paola police departments and
Miami County sheriff’s deputies
announced themselves and raided Heard’s
house at 1:25 a.m. Saturday. They found Heard in his bedroom armed with a rifle, and an
officer shot him once in the upper body.
(Marijuananews note: Heavily armed police from three different
departments burst into a man’s house looking for contraband. They did not find what
they were looking for, but he is still dead. The odds against the prohibitionists learning
from this are about the same as Mr. Heard’s coming back from the grave.)
See
Find Out Why Dorothy and Toto Really
Left Kansas -- from February 5th NORML Press Release
Heard’s 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, said she was sleeping on the couch when
officers burst in. She said they never identified themselves and that she knew they
were police only when she recognized officers she had seen around Osawatomie.
"When they came in, all I heard them say was, ‘Get down! Freeze!’ "
Ashley said. "I screamed, ‘Daddy!’ and I think he thought his daughter was
in danger. He didn’t know they were police officers, because he
wouldn’t have hurt a police officer."
The officer who shot Heard is on administrative leave, Delaney said. He wouldn’t
say which department the officer works for.
The KBI is working on a report of the raid that officials hope to send to Miami County
Attorney David Miller next week.
Miller will decide whether to file criminal charges.
Copyright: 1999 The Topeka Capital-Journal
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