“We did the best surveillance we could do, and a mistake was made,” Lebanon Police Chief Billy Weeks said.
No, they obviously didn't conduct the best surveillance. I can't begin to count how many search warrants and raids I planned and/or participated in. We never hit the wrong location and I cannot begin to grasp how one goes about hitting the wrong location.
Because of my background, I was usually the one that was tasked with pre-raid surveillance and intelligence gathering. This is a very critical phase of a properly executed warrant service or raid.
One of our rules was that the officer handling the case, that obtained the actual warrant and has actually been to the location, was always present when the warrant was executed. This was usually the officer that either went into that location and observed the illegal activity, or the one that conducted the actual hands on surveillance.
Additionally, whenever possible, we would go by the location prior to the search warrant to put "eyes on", allowing us to put an actual physical location to the address on the search/arrest warrant.
On my unit, we would never, ever obtain a search warrant solely on the word of an informant. One of us would have to actually observe the illegal activity that enabled us to obtain the warrant in the first place. Most informants are POS dopers that are working off charges, while a small amount are POS dopers that are working for money. Either way, they're POS dopers.......not exactly what I would call a reliable source of information, which is why one or more of us would have to witness the alleged activity.
The blame falls on the officer that obtained the warrant, for failing to verify the information and location he got from the CI. If the officers who fired had nothing to do with the actual case, but were just the doorkickers serving the warrant, then I cannot fault them for firing when fired upon. They should have never been there in the first place, but they were acting on "good faith" and the fault lies with the officer or officers that obtained the warrant and/or conducted the pre-raid surveillance. Now, if they were actually involved in gathering intelligence, obtaining the warrant, and planning the execution of said warrant, or any part of that, then they need to burn for this.
Since this happened over a decade ago, does anyone have any information on the outcome of this crock o' shit?