The story on a police-involved shooting in Houston on January 28 keeps going from bad to worse as more information comes in. The official police narrative was that officers were serving a warrant on a suspected heroin dealer. When they entered the home, the drug dealer and his wife opened fire on police. Five cops were wounded, and the two homeowners and their dog were killed.
The Houston Police Chief went in front of the cameras, praising the officers as “tough as nails” community servants – and of course, he called on lawmakers to pass more restrictive gun control laws and to close the ‘gun show loophole’ to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals. Then the whole story fell apart.
Listen to this description of the couple killed by police and ask yourself whether this fits the profile of two heroin dealers. Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas-Tuttle have been married for 20 years. Dennis is a disabled military vet. Rhogena is active in the community and she liked and followed the “All Lives Matter” pro-police page on Facebook.
Every single one of Dennis and Rhogena’s neighbors knew them by name and absolutely loved them. They call them a down-to-earth couple that was always ready and willing to help others. And neighbors say there were never any signs of drug dealing or any other criminal activity in the Tuttle’s home – no cars showing up at all hours of the night for a quick fix, no shady characters hanging around.
Does that sound like any heroin dealers you’ve ever heard of?
This is what we know about the raid from published reports in the Daily Mail, the Free Thought Project and other outlets that have covered it. The cops executed a no-knock raid on Dennis and Rhogena’s home on January 28th. The five police that kicked in their front door were in plainclothes – they had no identifying uniforms and weren’t showing badges. A neighbor who saw them kick in the door said she never heard the cops yell out “Police!” to identify themselves as cops. When they kicked the door in, the Tuttle’s dog went nuts and the police immediately shot the dog.
Dennis was in a back room in the home. He grabbed his legally-owned sidearm (a .357) and ran out to the living room to see five guys pointing guns at his wife and his now-dead dog. Dennis started shooting.
Rhogena tried to grab a gun from one of the wounded officers and fight back – and again, none of them had identified themselves as police officers at that point. Dennis and Rhogena were both killed by the cops.
A reporter found six bullet entry holes in the wall outside the front door, so at least one police officer was blindly shooting into the house. All the ballistics reports aren’t back yet, so it may eventually show that some of the wounded officers were hit by friendly fire.
A small trace of marijuana was found inside the home — and honestly, when you hear the rest of this story, you’ll probably be wondering if the cops planted that. Dennis’s pistol was legally owned, because he’d never been convicted of a crime. There was no heroin in the house.
Now it turns out that the “tough as nails” lead investigator Greg Goines had a confidential informant lie and sign an affidavit saying he had bought heroin at the Tuttles’ address the day before. That never took place. The cops obtained a warrant based on an absolute lie and then executed a no-knock warrant against a law-abiding couple’s home. The couple is dead as a result.
If you kicked someone’s door in under false pretenses and shot them dead as a private citizen, you’d be facing the death penalty in Texas. But because they’re police officers, prosecutors are only talking about charges for making false statements on a warrant application.
When is Congress going to implement a ban on these unconstitutional no-knock warrants? Or, better yet, when is the Supreme Court going to ban them as an obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens?
This whole story is rotten from top to bottom. And for the Houston Chief of Police to call on this as a reason for more gun control is absolutely sickening. Agents of the state like Greg Goines are the reason we have the Second Amendment in the first place.
Looks fishy
Looks like the cops screwed the pooch and are trying to play CYA,
That CI should be arrested and jailed for filing a false police report and 2nd degree murder. 2 innocent people are dead because of him. The whole situation was handled very poorly.
Sounds like they are practising for no knock gun grabbing.
Three sides to every story. Why were they set up is my first question? What was the purpose of the set up? Who benefits from all the deaths?
The police are wrong in this case.The chief should be prosecuted for murder for allowing this to happen to these people. No knock warrants should be declared unconstitutional.
When are we (the law abiding citizens who understand what is truly happening in America) going to say enough is enough and move to remove all of the Socialist and anti American representatives from our “leadership”. We need to make “America”, America again. Put bad actors like these away forever before they do this to us.
This was murder. An illegally obtained warrant and no warning in plain clothes and no badges shown is murder. The Houston police chief should be reprimanded for his behavior as well but after all he is a Democrat too! This whole thing sucks and yes the Supreme Court should step in because these guys cn kill anyone they have a notion to.
Most agencies do a recon workup of a location prior to serving a warrant, especially a no-knock, to give the justification of doing a no-knock service. I would like to see that documentation and see how they came to that conclusion that a no-knock was appropriate. Being a former LEO, a no-knock was always a last resort and required a number of hurdles before it could be used. I agree with the premise of the article that there is more to this story.
This is exactly why the 2nd amendment is an absolute necessity!!Our fore fathers with this amendment gave the people the power to remove any government that does not adhere to the will of the MAJORITY of the people!! I believe it is time for the PEOPLE to exercise their 2nd amendment rights,as we now have a government that is ignoring the will of the people!!!!! socialism IS DEFINITELY NOT the answer,going back to the letter of the CONSTITUTION IS THE ONLY ANSWER!!! No EXCEPTIONS!! IT IS TIME FOR THE PEOPLE TO RISE UP AND TAKE BACK THEIR/OUR COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seems like these keystone cops based the raid on ONE informant’s sayso. Absolutely no confirmation of the Tuttles’ illegal activity, which was none. No surveillance at all to make a determination that justified the raid.
From what I have read the police raided the wrong house, They clearly should be charged and jailed to the fullest.
This if far from the first time this has happened. “From 2010 through 2016, at least 81 civilians and 13 officers died during SWAT raids, including 31 civilians and eight officers during execution of no-knock warrants.”
A search by google revealed that Houston Police will no longer use “no knock raids” after considerable uproar by local citizens. Those responsible for this fiasco should serve some hard time, a lot of it.
Chief Acevedo has been an anti-citizen’s rights activist ever since, at least, when Chief in Austin. He strongly opposes citizens’ right to be armed. If this story is accurate he should be charged with murder as well as the officers involved. The false warrant should cause someone to go to jail forever.
I’m a retired police sergeant who supervised one of two of my departments special weapons and tactics teams. It was our job to serv all high risk warrants.
Before that happened there were a minimum of 3 confirmations at the point of service of the warrant to insure the location was correct. We also wore plain clothes but before we went through the door we were in our assault gear with POLICE plastered all over it.
Before we breached the point of entry we shouted Police!, and Police! again after we were inside and continued doing so until contact was made with a human being. Any police department who serves high risk warrants, with any less caution than that, no knock or not, sets themselves up for exactly what happened in Houston.
Don’t worry about them getting away with this, it won’t pass the smell test. They were cowboys, not Cops and they will pay the “Stupid Tax” for not playing by the rules because all bad decisions have consequences.
And just so you know, No Knock Warrants are one of the most valuable tools communities have to break up illicit drug operations. If executed as I just iterated, citizens have nothing to fear from their police department because events like the one in Houston can not happen.
What a Travesty! Two Completely Innocent People lost Their Lives due to Police Incompetence! I am very much Pro Boys-N-Blue, but this Incident MUST BE INVESTIGATED with Complete Transparency!
No knock warrants should be declared unconstitutional.
The snich and who ever authorized the warrant and the
person leading the raid should be prosecuted, but a democrat
chief, you know it won’t happen.
Not mentioned in this article is the fact that the man was shot again, by the last SWAT team member in, 2 hours AFTER the raid was conducted! Yes, the innocent man was wounded, and lay in pain beside his dead wife and dog for 2 hours before one of the cops shot him again. Sorry, but, this was “EXECUTION”, pure and simple, and, the only reason I can think of for this was to make sure this man did NOT get his day in court. As a former LE for about 12 years in the US military, followed by another 5 years as a Corrections Officer in a Maximum Security State Prison, I can say, unequivocally, that I am Pro Police! But, something has seriously gone wrong with the Justice System in the United States! There are far, far too many “Police” like the cowboys who caused this heinous assault, and the blatantly stupid Chief of Police who attempted to legitimize it! Too many bullies and thugs wear Blue, these days, people who have no business carrying a badge and gun. A recent discussion with a Shift Commander for my local PD has caused my to wonder just what the heck cops are taught in cop school! When asked directly about Asset Forfeiture, the kind that is NOT directly tied to drugs, and where no charges are brought, yet the property or money is taken from an individual, brought no comment from him other than Asset Forfeiture was needed to stop drug traffic. He went beyond civility when pressed about the use of Asset Forfeiture when no drugs are involved, nor charges filed. Incidentally, he is a member of the county swat team. No, we need a serious overhaul of our Criminal Justice System. And we need it now…
smells like over reach and no excuse…lock em all up. All my weapons are locked and loaded when you come for mine you better bring YOURS! Law enforcement or other…
Where do these antigun idiots come up with ( THE GUN SHOW LOOP HOLE )? This is just BS.
The Houston Chief of Police. Art Acevedo, is a toad. Anyone that has looked into his history knows this. He was run out of the California Highway Patrol in disgrace and then moved to Austin – the most liberal city in Texas. He then was hired by Houston who apparently can’t stand Austin being more liberal that it is.
Every position he has ever had has become tainted and yet, for some strange reason liberal politicians hold him in high regard.
He and everyone of the officers involved in the January 28th shooting should be charged with murder, convicted and spend the rest of their lives in the state prison in Huntsville.