"Swatting" claims another innocent victim shot by LEO

[talltex]

How so? What do you know that the rest of us don't?

If no one is charged then nothing for a court to sort.

That, and dead folks can't testify.

Ever notice when the innocent victim lives, there are always huge payouts, and plenty of blame/liability? But when they die, there is some public outrage, followed by denial or justification for the wrongful death. And then they sweep it under the rug.

You can bet that somebody will nearly always sue somebody.

That's certainly true, but it doesn't do much for the guy that got shot in the middle of the night, inside his home, standing in the kitchen, by an officer that shot him through the window in the door. These "shoot first and determine the facts later" incidents are getting out of hand.

[Jusme]

This raises a couple of questions for me.

How can we as potential victims prevent this type of stuff from happening?

Who is the the biggest threat to our and our families safety, the good guys or the thug home invaders? These days I find the Government a bigger threat to my safety, and my stuff than the bad guys, I have some means to protect myself from the bad guys. I am not so sure how to best protect the myself from murderous and thieving government officials.

If you're active on social media, and have ever engaged or been threatened by a psychopath, you should let the cops or sheriff know that swatting is possible. Same if you have a psycho relative or other connection. Chief can let the SWAT team know, and they might just remember it. Or not. Cheap insurance.

That sounds good in theory, and may work for smaller municipalities, but, in larger urban areas, I can't see how preemptive, forewarning would be effective. Secondly, that thought process, requires the potential victim, to know that there is a possibility, of this type of occurance. From the sketchy details, in this report, it sounds like a non-involved, vindictive person, made the call, with no direct, true info. There is no way to know, who might have an axe to grind, in every situation. The victim, may not have even known all of the details, and simply, allowed his daughter to stay, based on limited info. Which is perfectly understandable. I know that if my daughter came to me and said, I need to stay here, with my kids, for a while, there would be no hesitation on my part, and I would only inquire, as far as she was willing to disclose.

The fault lies with the department, who received the call, and evidently didn't question its validity, and responded enforce.

How can this type of thing be avoided? Get involved, in all decisions, regarding police chiefs, sheriff elections, and anyone else who makes these type of decisions. They all work for us, despite what they may think. If there are officers, who are overstepping their authority, do everything you can, to get them removed.

[Soccerdad1995]

I will be anxiously awaiting all the relevant facts in this case. But here are my initial thoughts.

The article says that if it shown the caller knew the info to be false and acted maliciously, she could be charged with "filing a false report". Really? How about murder? That seems like a more appropriate charge.

The actions of the home owner were all reasonable, as far as I can tell. If I am woken up by noises outside my house in the middle of the night I will have a gun in my hand 6 seconds later (just timed this last night, ironically enough). And I will investigate. If I see a strange shape outside, I will likely point my gun in that direction.

The call was supposedly about texts from the daughter in law threatening to harm herself. I'm just thinking that sneaking around outside the house is a bit less effective of a response than something simpler like arriving with lights going and knocking on the door. If you announce yourself as police while outside my home, I won't hear you unless you scream it REAL loud. Combination of decent insulation and ears that have seen service in the U.S. Artillery. Having lights going would mean that as soon as my dog woke me up, I would immediately see the lights flooding through my house and would at least know that police were present. I would probably still have gun in hand, but would keep it al low ready until I figured out what was going on.

I'm not certain that shooting into someone's home is a good idea. I don't plan to ever shoot someone who is outside my home for the same reason.