Rogue Police Home Invasion: Marijuana Grower Shot SWAT Cops Who Kicked Down His Door, Jury Says They Don’t Blame Him
Posted: March 30, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Arrest warrant, Burleson County, Cannabis, Cocaine, Crack cocaine, Drug paraphernalia, Police, Search warrant, Sheriff, Special Investigations Unit, SWAT 1 Comment(CCN) Recently, there has been some talk about places that allow you to shoot officers if they are in the wrong when they enter your home. Our friends at The Free Thought Project write the following about the steps that one state has taken in this direction:
Indiana has taken action to “recognize the unique character of a citizen’s home and to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her own home against unlawful intrusion by another individual or a public servant.”
While Indiana may appear to be the only state to so publicly announce legislation that permits self-defense against rogue police home invasions, there are other courts which have ruled in favor of recognizing this right.
One of the most striking examples is that of a Texas man who says he was the victim of a home invasion in the middle of the night. But that home invasion was carried out by SWAT officers.
In the pre-dawn raid, that occurred on December 19th, 2013, Henry Goedrich Magee, like many residents of Burleson County, Texas, had a gun in the house. When Magee heard his door being broken down, he reached for his gun.
The police wanted to throw the proverbial book at him, but after hearing the evidence, a grand jury determined that Magee should not be charged in the shooting death of one of those officers.
The ruling was clear that Magee would not be charged with capital murder for the death of Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders, who was part of a SWAT team which attempted to raid Magee’s rural home, in the execution of a search warrant.
The officers did in fact have a warrant, but a key factor in the grand jury’s decision was that they did not knock before entering.
The warrant says that they were primarily looking for marijuana primarily, and also for illegal guns.
But Dick DeGuerin, Magee’s attorney, said that his client legitimately thought he was being burglarized by armed attackers. That’s when he opened fire on the officers, with his legal firearm.
He did have marijuana plants and seedlings, but it was nothing like what the warrant stated officers were looking for. Unlike what the cops had said to get the warrant, there was not a single illegal or stolen firearm in the home.
The grand jury did, however, indict Magee for possession of marijuana while in possession of a deadly weapon, a third-degree felony.
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- 1 arrested in Beloit drug bust (nbc15.com)
- SWAT team busts Burien burglary ring (seattlepi.com)
- 2 arrested at Spring Manor; drugs seized (ocala.com)
- Another day, another drug raid fatality (debatepolitics.com)
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