Legalize it! Town mayor's dogs shot by SWAT team in erroneous drug bust

[Tenigma]

OK this story has me SOOOOO angry!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme.

"This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. "We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff's deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing."

The raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home.

Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

Calvo said he had just returned home from walking his two Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, when his mother-in-law told him a package had arrived for his wife, Trinity Tomsic.

Moments later, Calvo was in his room changing for a meeting when he heard commotion downstairs.

"The door flew open," he said. "I heard gunfire shoot off. There was a brief pause and more gunfire."

If I were the mayor I think I'd be looking at a beeeeeg lawsuit.

[Gemini Cricket]

Ugh. That is so freakin' sad.

[The Original OC Adventure]

Get a rope!

[innerSpaceman]

Great, now i'm crying and more upset than i already was as a potential fish murderer.


Fucity Fucfucfuc!!!

[BDBopper]

Alas there are way too many of these stories. It's time to legalize drugs, get the addicts into treatment programs, and end the uneeded murders and all the increased Federaldebt the War on Drugs is responsible for

[Alex]

If nothing else it is time for a significant curtailment of no knock warrants. Along with horrible stories like this are where innocent people defending their home against unidentified intruders and then are arrested for shooting a policeman.

[Tenigma]

Originally Posted by Alex

If nothing else it is time for a significant curtailment of no knock warrants. Along with horrible stories like this are where innocent people defending their home against unidentified intruders and then are arrested for shooting a policeman.

I couldn't have said it better myself. No-knock warrants are for the dogs. It's not like they knew there were violent criminals in the home in a hostage situation or something.

I've been reading other articles about this story (you go, Mr. Mayor! Keep this in the press!), and in one of them, when someonementioned that the dogs were shot because they were posing a threat to the cops, the mayor's retort was supposedly, "If you'd knocked I would've put the dogs away."

The mayor didn't see the shootings but can you imagine what it must have been like? A bunch of strangers with their guns drawn, the dogs were probably defending their home from these home invaders! They died trying to defend their home.

The more I think of this incident the angrier I get.

I really hope the mayor sues them, and I really hope he has the energy to move a the no-knock warrant mountain.

[Technically though, the warrant said nothing about it being a no-knock warrant. Apparently it has to say that on the search warrant in order for them to burst in like that.]

LAWSUIT!!!!!

[katiesue]

Ok maybe I'm just slightly dim, but I'm confused. The package was a part of a bigger scheme to send drugs to unsuspecting people and then intercept them before the person actually got them right? So why was there a warrant for the house in the first place if they knew the recipient wasn't a part of the plan? And they had an undercover person deliver the package - so why not just arrest whoever signed for it upon delivery? I don't get why they needed to invade the home at all?

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

The way I see it, the Mayor was getting drugs and it wasn't like SWAT was driving down the street and randomly picking a house. Whether or not it was part of some scheme or not, that will be figured out later. Just because he's Mayor doesn't mean he's free from being investigated etc etc. Look at the DC mayor from years past. The dogs, well, if you're the officer, you protect yourself. Its sad but if it were me, I'd rather not take the chance of some animal attacking me.

The point, odviously, was getting the drugs off the streets and at the same time protecting themselves. They're human and though it sucks, that's what happens when you're inforcing the law. It's not gonna please everyone.

[Morrigoon]

Suing won't bring the dogs back...