Pubdate: Fri, 06 Feb 2004
Source: Drug War Chronicle (US Web)
Contact:  http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2514
Author: Phillip S. Smith, Editor

DRUG WAR KILLS MORE THAN A COP A MONTH

Drug War Chronicle has reported with depressing regularity on people
killed by police prosecuting the war on drugs. This week, we look at
the flip-side: the number of police officers killed fighting the drug
war. Working from a list of 146 officers killed in the line of duty
last year presented on the Officer Down Memorial Page
(http://www.odmp.org), part of a larger pro-police web site,
Officer.com, and digging into the background of the sometimes
incomplete reports, DRCNet has found that at least 14 police officers,
or slightly more than one per month, were killed enforcing drug
prohibition last year.

And the toll continues. The latest prohibition-related police fatality
occurred just last week, when 24-year-old St. Louis Police Officer
Nick Sloan was killed while working undercover to make a drug purchase
as part of the federally-funded Weed and Seed program. When Sloan and
other officers attempted to arrest Dennis Hathorn, 31, of nearby
Centreville, Hathorn grabbed Sloan's weapon and opened fire, killing
Sloan and wounding his partner, Police Officer Gabriel Keithley.
Hathorn was in turn shot and killed by other police.

"I just spoke with a relative of a police officer who was a friend of
the one killed in St. Louis," said Jack Cole, director of Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://www.leap.cc), who happened to
be in Missouri this week for a set of appearances detailing the
group's opposition to the drug war. "She came up to me after a speech
almost in tears, telling me about that dead officer," Cole told
DRCNet. "I would bet you anything that the guy who shot him was not a
big time criminal."

Cole would win that bet. According to St. Louis police, Hathorn had no
criminal record. His mother told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that her
son, a railroad worker, was having money troubles. "After this
incident happened, one of his friends told me that Dennis had
financial troubles with child support and that he was thinking about
finding someone to show him how to sell cocaine until he could get on
his feet," said Francis Hathorn. "The police said they found crack
cocaine in his pocket. I can only go by the reports of the police. I
would have said, 'No, he never would get involved in drugs.'" Hathorn
added, "Dennis may have thought he was being robbed. I know he didn't
know they were police officers."

While the younger Hathorn was relegated to the dustbin -- in an
article Thursday on Officer Sloan's funeral, he was referred to only
as "a drug dealer" -- Sloan's death was marked by an outpouring of
official grief.

"These police deaths are totally unnecessary," said Cole. "If we ended
drug prohibition, none of these officers would have had to die. We're
killing our police. All we have to do is legalize drugs and that would
not be happening. Can't we learn from Alcohol Prohibition?" Cole
asked. "We had the highest murder rate in our history and cops were
dying right and left."

"These are casualties of war," said LEAP member Peter Christ, a
retired police captain with 20 years of experience fighting the drug
war. "It's a war we shouldn't be fighting," he told DRCNet. "Drug
prohibition creates an environment where we put cops in a job where
they can't win, and you have to expect these kinds of results. The
answer is a no-brainer, at least for me: You have to legalize drugs."

Officer.com identified 146 police officers who died in the line of
duty last year, a figure in line with recent years, when, except for
2001, the number of police killed has hovered between 150 and 200 each
year. Nearly one-third of those died in car crashes, while among those
killed confronting criminals, responding to domestic disturbances
proved to be a leading killer. But at a minimum, almost 10% of all
police line-of-duty fatalities last year came in the war on drugs.
They include:

Officer Andre Gerard Booker, 26, Henrico County Police Department, VA,
killed January 12, 2003. Booker drowned when his patrol car sank in an
icy pond as he was maneuvering to block the road to stop a fleeing
suspect. Although authorities charged the suspect in the case with
Booker's murder, he was not convicted of the death. He was convicted
of possession of cocaine and possession of a firearm while in
possession of a controlled substance.

Patrolman Jeremy (Jay) Carruth , 29, Alexandria Police Department, LA,
killed February 20, 2003. Carruth was one of two Alexandria police
officers killed in a shootout with escaped fugitive Anthony Molette,
25. Molette had broken out of the parish jail, where he was serving a
sentence for sale of Schedule II drugs. He had been arrested numerous
times before, including eight separate times for drug offenses. Four
of those arrests were for "anti-drug loitering" or "drug trafficking
loitering." After he escaped from jail, Molette ambushed another
police officer the day before he turned an AK-47 on Carruth and his
partner. Molette was killed by police later in the same engagement.

Private First Class David Ezernack, 26, Alexandria Police Department,
LA, killed February 20, 2003. Ezernack was the other Alexandria police
officer shot and killed by Molette.

Deputy Sheriff Randy Smith, 31, Evangeline Parish Sheriff's
Department, LA, killed April 16, 2003. Smith was shot and killed while
attempting to arrest Frank Jack, who had escaped from the Evangeline
Parish jail two months earlier. Jack was in jail for distribution of
counterfeit drugs. Jack was shot and killed by police during the same
incident.

Police Officer Mary Ann Collura, 43, Fair Lawn Police Department, NJ,
killed April 17, 2003. Collura was shot and killed and another police
officer wounded in a shootout at the end of a vehicle chase where
passengers were seen throwing items from the car as it fled. Police in
nearby Clifton began the pursuit, and Collura joined in to provide
assistance, but was shot and killed in a struggle once the vehicles
came to a stop. According to the police, her killer stole her car and
ran her over as she lay dying. That killer was "drug dealer Omar Marti
of Passaic," who in turn was killed in a shootout with police three
days later in Florida.

Officer Tony Zeppetella, 27, Oceanside Police Department, killed June
13, 2003. Zeppetella was shot and killed during a traffic stop by
Adrian George Camacho, 30. Camacho was identified as a gang member and
was in possession of methamphetamine. He was wounded, but fled to a
relative's house, where, surrounded by more than 50 police, he
surrendered after a four-hour standoff. He faces murder charges.

Sergeant Michael Johnson, 39, Vermont State Police, VT, killed June
15, 2003. Johnson died attempting to place spike strips on Interstate
91 to stop 23-year-old Evan Daley, who, facing drug charges in Vermont
and New Hampshire, sped away from a traffic stop minutes earlier.
After placing the strips on the highway, Johnson was standing in the
median when Daley swerved to avoid the strips and hit him. Daley
didn't stop, but was caught two days later in Pennsylvania and faced
charges of second-degree murder in Johnson's death.

Police Officer Douglas E. Wendel, 41, Richmond Police Department, VA,
killed July 30, 2003. Wendel was shot and killed after responding to a
call about a suspected drug dealer in the city's Southside. Wendel was
patting the suspect down when he felt a gun, and a struggle ensued.
Peter Lee Boone, 19, was convicted of shooting Wendel four times and
sentenced to life in prison. At the time of the incident, Boone was on
probation on a drug charge.

Deputy Stephen Sorensen, 46, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department,
CA, killed August 2, 2003. Sorenson disappeared afterresponding to a
trespass call. Witnesses reported hearing six shots, and after
searching the area for an hour, other deputies found his body. He had
been shot six times with a .223 rifle before his feet were tied
together and his body was dragged into the desert. Deputies found meth
lab chemicals in the area, leading to the theory he had discovered a
meth lab. The man who admitted killing Sorenson died a week later in a
blazing inferno. Surrounded by deputies at Lake Los Angeles area
house, the man responded to tear gas and battering rams with gunfire
before the house burst into flames.

Sergeant Rodney L. Davis, 30, Greene County Sheriff's Department, VA,
killed August 26, 2003. Davis was shot and killed as he and another
deputy attempted to serve a warrant on a man for selling crack
cocaine. The suspect was also killed when deputies returned fire.

Narcotics Officer Donnie Washington, 31, Richland County Sheriff's
Department, SC, killed October 16, 2003. Washington died in a
one-vehicle car accident while on duty as an undercover narcotics officer.

Police Officer Matthew Pavelka, 26, Burbank Police Department, CA,
killed November 15, 2003. Pavelka was shot and killed while doing
back-up on a traffic stop. After the driver of the vehicle was unable
to produce a driver's license, he and his passenger came out firing
handguns. One of the suspects was killed in the exchange of gunfire;
the other fled and was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico. He faces murder
and attempted murder charges. Police found methamphetamine and several
semi-automatic rifles in the vehicle.

Sergeant Hubert (John John) Yancey, 35, Scott County Sheriff's
Department, TN, killed November 28, 2003. Yancey was accidentally shot
and killed by a fellow officer while conducting a raid on a suspected
meth lab. The first deputy inside the residence noticed someone hiding
in a closet and took cover when the door began to open and women
residents began screaming. Thinking his fellow officer was in trouble,
Yancey entered the building, and the deputy, thinking he had an armed
suspect, shot him. Four people were arrested on methamphetamine
charges, but were not charged in Yancey's death.

Trooper Nikky J. Green, 35, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, OK, killed
December 26, 2003. Green was shot and killed after he stopped to check
on a vehicle parked on the side of the highway. During the stop, Green
discovered the occupant had been cooking meth in the vehicle. A
struggle ensued, and the suspect shot and killed Green with his own
weapon. The suspect was caught two days later and faces murder charges. 
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