When an eight-man police raid team lined up outside an apartment where fugitive Harold McCord Jr. was hiding, they believed that three hours of planning had prepared them to safely capture him.
Yet, a review of the more than 1,160 pages of reports, witness statements and transcripts released this week indicates that problems arose from the beginning.
The report shows that the team of Monroe and Bothell officers mistakenly believed that a judge had granted them the authority to enter the apartment without knocking, giving McCord no chance to surrender.
Monroe Sgt. Carlos Martinez, who wrote the search warrant, said he was never told to ask for a "no-knock" entry. The judge approved the search warrant for the apartment without the no-knock authorization.
Team leader Monroe police Sgt. Eduardo Jany — who said he did not review the warrant before entering the apartment — believed that the entry team had that authority. The team used a heavy metal ram to force open the apartment’s front door.
Jany told a special team of detectives who spent nearly three months investigating the shooting that he had served many no-knock warrants, including several in this state.
Those are extremely rare, SWAT officers and a legal expert for the Seattle Police Department said Wednesday.
Leo Poort, who has worked as a legal adviser for Seattle police for 27 years, said he’s only heard of one case, which involved a drug dealer who always answered the door armed.
"I can’t remember personally seeing a warrant where the court addresses that upfront, because so much of that is fact-specific to the situation when you attempt the entry," he said.
The state requires police to knock and announce their presence unless officers at the scene are confronted with circumstances where doing that would endanger them or others, Poort said.
"I don’t think that judges want to project in advance what an officer or group of officers should do in serving a warrant. That’s what officers do," he said.
Storming into homes is risky, said Mark Mestel, an Everett attorney who in the early 1990s won millions of dollars for Snohomish County residents who were injured or lost family members in botched raids.
The biggest settlement, about $5 million, came in connection with the 1992 shooting death of Robin Marie Pratt, who was accidentally shot during a raid on her Everett apartment.
"I think breaking down doors and rushing in is dangerous for the police and the inhabitants and should be done as a very last resort," Mestel said.
He said he’s never seen a no-knock warrant in the 25 years he has practiced law.
In the Pratt case, officers later testified they had talked about trying to get a no-knock warrant for the Pratt apartment. Instead, a judge issued a standard search warrant.
Pratt’s husband had been accused — it was later discovered falsely — of planning a fatal armored car robbery. At the time of the raid, he was considered armed and dangerous.
Monroe police also considered McCord armed and dangerous. Before the raid, they reviewed police intelligence and news reports about McCord’s escape from the Pierce County Courthouse on June 23. McCord flashed a fake gun at a guard and threatened to shoot him before running from the building.
The report also showed that:
The last time the Bothell and Monroe teams trained together was more than a year before the raid.
Monroe police declined to comment about the investigation Wednesday.
Prosecutors are reviewing the investigation’s findings to determine whether McCord’s June 24 death was a lawful but unfortunate act, or a crime.
Mark Roe, the county’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor, said he plans to spend days reviewing the evidence before reaching a decision. In keeping with the law, a key element will be what was going on in the minds of police, Roe said.
Herald reporter Scott North contributed to this article.
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
