Before the clock struck 12 on the night of Aug. 9, 1999, the El Monte, Calif., Police Department Special Emergency Response Team struck Mario. Conducting what is often known as a "dynamic" or "high risk" entry, the police shot the locks off the front and back doors, tossed a flash-bang grenade and proceeded to deposit two lead slugs in Mario's back. High risk indeed.

The police said Mario was reaching for a gun. Who wouldn't? According to the lawyer representing what's left of the Paz family, Mario thought it was a home invasion robbery. No such luck. The cops were looking for drugs, which they didn't find. They did find a few guns and $10,000, which they seized, even though the family said they kept the guns for protection in their high-crime neighborhood and had the bank withdrawal slip for the money -- indicating that perhaps they didn't earn it brokering coke or peddling funny cigarettes as the cops surmised.

FBI Probes Fatal Drug Raid in California By Cassandra Stern
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 6, 1999; Page A16

LOS ANGELES –– The FBI has begun a preliminary investigation into whether a local police officer violated the civil rights of a 64-year-old man who was shot and killed in his home during a botched drug raid.

Shortly before midnight on Aug. 9, the El Monte Police Department's Special Emergency Response Team, armed with a search warrant, stormed a modest blue and white stucco home in Compton as part of an ongoing drug investigation. Officers shot locks off both the front and back doors, threw a flash-bang grenade onto the ground behind the house and shot a "diversionary device" into a back room for illumination.

Minutes later 64 year old Mario Paz, a grandfather who had been sleeping with his wife in the bedroom of their home of more than 20 years, was dead from two gunshot wounds to his back. Outside, officers were interrogating the four other residents of the house, including his handcuffed widow, wearing only her panties and a towel draped over her chest.

Officers did not file charges against any of the residents.

Police had entered the right house, the address specified in the warrant for a nighttime, "high-risk entry." The warrant said they expected to find marijuana, drug paraphernalia, money or guns. Officers seized three handguns, a .22-caliber rifle and $10,000 cash. The family said they kept the guns for protection in their high-crime neighborhood. The cash, they said, was their life savings, recently withdrawn from a bank in Tijuana, Mexico. The family has the withdrawal slip.

Police said they did not find any narcotics or drug paraphernalia.

Police said they had gotten the address for the Paz residence off the vehicle registration and other documents belonging to Marcos Beltran Lizarraga, a drug suspect.

Brian Dunn, a lawyer from Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.'s firm who is representing Paz's family, said that Lizarraga lived next door to the Pazes during the 1980s and that the family sold him the car six years ago. He occasionally received mail at their house. Dunn said that the police should have at least found out who was living in the house before raiding it.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Gennaco, who has been tracking the case, said his office asked the FBI to open an investigation last week. "What we have right now is a criminal investigation into the individual officer's actions," he said.

An FBI spokeswoman confirmed that an agent has been assigned and a preliminary investigation is underway. Once completed, it will be forwarded to the Justice Department, which decides whether to prosecute.

This is the latest fatal shooting by local police that has drawn public outcry and federal scrutiny over whether officers used excessive force. In a well-publicized incident last December, four Riverside officers shot African American teenager Tyisha Miller a dozen times after responding to a 911 call about an unconscious woman in her car. Those officers have been fired. In May, Los Angeles police officers shot a mentally ill homeless woman, Margaret Mitchell. That incident is still under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The Sheriff's Department, which routinely investigates officer-involved shootings, has provided three explanations for why officers fired at Paz.

At first they said the El Monte officers believed Paz was armed. Later they said that he was reaching for a gun. The latest statement said officers saw Paz reaching for a drawer where guns were found.

"From the family's standpoint that's just another justification for the empty killing of an innocent man," said Dunn. "Any time you have a shooting of an unarmed man who is totally clean, the police have to justify their actions, they have to justify the homicide."

El Monte Assistant Police Chief Bill Ankeny said that so far only the family's side of the incident has come out and he hopes the sheriff's investigation and the federal review will result in the release of information that defends his officers' actions.

"We don't like the picture being painted," Ankeny said.

Although he can't comment specifically on the case because of the investigation and the possibility of a lawsuit by the Paz family, Ankeny said he thinks officers followed standard procedures for this type of raid, which he emphasized was considered "high risk" to officers. Still, he says this was an unfortunate incident.

"Any loss of life, be it police or civilian, is certainly a tragedy," Ankeny said. "They certainly have our sympathy."

El Monte, a suburb east of Los Angeles, has an aggressive anti-drug program. According the police department, officers often serve warrants in other jurisdictions when they relate to the department's cases. In this instance, El Monte did have the cooperation of the Compton Police Department. The family's attorney said the family wonders why law enforcement needs to use such forceful methods to execute search warrants.

"The reason why Mario Paz is dead is the manner in which his house was searched," Dunn said. He described the police entry into the Paz house as a "full-scale, military commando-style raid," which the family initially thought was a home-invasion robbery. "Those kinds of tactics should not be used against law-abiding people," he said.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Peter McWilliams, the #1 bestselling author and medical marijuana activist who was found dead in California on June 14, was murdered by the War on Drugs, the Libertarian Party charged today.

"Peter McWilliams would not be dead today if not for the heartless, lethal War on Drugs," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. "The federal government killed Peter McWilliams by denying him the medical marijuana he needed to stay alive as surely as if its drug warriors had put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

"Peter McWilliams may be dead, but the causes he so bravely fought for -- access to life-saving medicine, an end to the War on Drugs, and greater freedom for all Americans -- will live on."

On Wednesday, McWilliams was found dead in the bathroom of his Los Angeles home. According to sources, he had choked on his vomit.

McWilliams, 50, had suffered from AIDS and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma since 1996, and had used medical marijuana to suppress the nausea that was a common side-effect to the potent medications needed to keep him alive. ,p. The marijuana was completely legal, thanks to California's Proposition 215, which passed in 1996 and legalized the use of marijuana for treatment of illness. However, in late 1997, McWilliams was arrested by federal drug agents and charged with conspiracy to sell marijuana.

After a federal judge ruled that McWilliams could not mention his illnesses at his trial -- or introduce as evidence any of the documented benefits of medical marijuana -- he pled guilty to avoid a 10-year mandatory-minimum prison sentence.

While out on bail awaiting sentencing, McWilliams was prohibited from using medical marijuana -- and being denied access to the drug's anti-nausea properties almost certainly caused his death, said Dasbach.

"First, the federal government arrested McWilliams for doing something that is 100% legal in California," he said. "Then, they put him on trial and wouldn't allow him to introduce the one piece of evidence that could have explained his actions. Finally, they let him out of jail on the condition that he couldn't use the one medicine that kept him alive.

"What the federal government did to Peter McWilliams is nothing less that cold-blooded, premeditated murder. A good, decent, talented man is dead because of the bipartisan public policy disaster known as the War on Drugs."

Ironically, on June 9, McWilliams appeared on the "Give Me A Break!" segment of ABC Television's 20/20, where host John Stossel noted, "[McWilliams] is out of prison on the condition that he not smoke marijuana, but it was the marijuana that kept him from vomiting up his medication. I can understand that the federal drug police don't agree with what some states have decided to do about medical marijuana, but does that give them the right to just end run those laws and lock people up?

"Give me a break! [It] seems this War on Drugs often does more harm than the drugs themselves."

Five days later, McWilliams was dead.

McWilliams, the owner of Prelude Press, was a multi-million- copy-selling author of How to Survive the Loss of a Love, The Personal Computer Book, and DO IT! Let's Get Off Our Buts (with co- author John-Roger), a #1 New York Times bestseller. He also wrote what is widely considered to be the definitive book against "consensual" crimes, Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do.

He joined the Libertarian Party in 1998 following a nationally televised speech at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC.

In that speech, McWilliams said, "Marijuana is the finest anti- nausea medication known to science, and our leaders have lied about this consistently. [Arresting people for] medical marijuana is the most hideous example of government interference in the private lives of individuals. It's an outrage within an outrage within an outrage."

McWilliams' death was also noted by Libertarians in his home state.

"Peter McWilliams was a true hero who fought and ultimately gave his life for what he believed in: The right to heal oneself without government interference," said Mark Hinkle, state chair of the California Libertarian Party.

"His loss opens a gaping hole in the fabric of liberty, but his memory will live on not only in the hearts of grateful Libertarians but also in the lives of the countless patients who will take up the crusade for health freedom."

Acting on an informant's tip, members of a Houston Police Department gang task force stormed into an apartment last month (July 1998) where they believed illegal drugs were being sold.

When the man who lived there locked himself inside his bedroom, the officers kicked in the door and began firing.

Thirty-three bullets later, 23-year-old Pedro Oregon Navarro was dead, shot a dozen times, including nine times in the back.

But the investigation in the wake of the fatal shooting shows the officers had no warrant, the informant was not registered with the police as required by department rules covering drug informants, police found no drugs in Mr. Oregon's apartment and a gun officers said Mr. Oregon had pointed at them never was fired.

"They went knowingly and consciously in search of their own heroics and forgot to abide by the rules," says Tony Cantu, a Hispanic activist in Houston. "I'm a Republican and I believe in no government intrusion. If the police department coming into your apartment without a warrant is not intrusive, what is?"

The case has mobilized many Houston Hispanics, prompting calls for rallies and strategy sessions to pressure authorities to prosecute and punish the officers.

"It's frightening that officers would illegally enter a residence and shoot a man in the back," said Paul Nugent, an attorney Mr. Oregon's family hired. "Evidence seems to indicate he was shot in the back while he was on the floor. We think he dove to the floor for cover when the police kicked in the door.

"We hope there's a vigorous investigation. The family is afraid there will be a whitewash and the officers' actions will somehow be justified."

Six officers who took part in the raid, including a sergeant, are suspended with pay pending the outcome of investigations. At least two are under way, one by the department's internal affairs division and another by homicide detectives and the district attorney's office, which is to present its case to a grand jury the week of Aug. 17.

The Mexican government has expressed its concern because Mr. Oregon, the father of two, was from Michoacan, Mexico. And the new national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Houston attorney Rick Dovalina, wants the Justice Department to look into the case.

Steven Dons from Portland Oregon "committed suicide" while in a medical facilty ran by the State. He had been the victim of an unlawful raid by the Portland Oregon Police Department over the heinous crime of "maybe" having had marijuana in the house he was staying in. However Steven was not a mild mannered sheeple. When the police kicked down his door without a warrant he responed in a way appropriate for the situation. Using a rifle he killed a police officer, seriously wounded another and also wounded a third. I guess that is what can happen if a citizen understands the 4th amendment and the 2nd amendment.

Donald Scott, heir of the Scott Tissue fortune for defending himself during an un-announced 'dynamic' entry by 14 agencies of the Federal and local Government allegedly looking for marijuana plants on his property. His crime? Trying to defend his family and property against scruffy looking intruders on his property, who did not identify themselves properly.

Esequiel Hernandez, Jr., a "shy, hardworking young man", according to neighbors, was shot by Corporal Clemente Banuelos with a M-16 machine gun. He was left bleeding to death for 22 minutes before help was called. His "crime"? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time supposedly when Marines were looking for marijuana plants on his parents farm.

The following were victims of the WACO debacle. The original reason for the use of machine gun equipped helicopters was the lie told to the state that their was "drugs" at the "compound". During the ensuing battle, over 80 men woman and children were murdered by the FBI and ATF. I am so "proud" to be an American I COULD PUKE!

Raymond Friesen Malcom Livingston Katherine Andrade Aisha Summers Aisha Summers' unborn child John-Mark Stanley McBean Dayland Lord Little (Gent) Floracita Sonobe Shari Doyle David M. Jones Alrick George Bennett Rebecca Saipaia Novellette Hipsman Gregory Allen Summers Neal Vaega Pablo Cohen Mary Jean E. Borst Nicole Little (Gent) Wayne Martin "Child" Martin Joseph R. Martinez Isaiah Martinez Julliete S. Martinez Audrey Martinez Abigail Martinez Rosemary Morrison Chanel Andrade "Twin" Jones Paiges (Little) Gent Kara Brittani Little (Gent) Lorraine Sylvia Star Howell (Koresh) Cyrus Howell (Koresh) Rachel Howell (Koresh) Hollywood Sylvia Bobby Layne Howell (Koresh) Rachel Sylvia Mayannah Schneider Michelle Jones Serenity Sea Jones Melissa Morrison Rosemary Morrison Peter Gent Winston Blake Jaydean Wendel Peter Hipsman Peter Dale ("Perry") Jones Michael Dean Schroeder

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) - An 11-year-old boy was fatally shot by a member of a SWAT team during a drug raid at his parents' home.

Alberto Sepulveda, a seventh-grader, was shot in the back Wednesday when an officer accidentally fired his shotgun, said Police Chief Roy Wasden

More on the above...

Alberto "Betito" Sepulveda often started water balloon fights -- never real fights -- with the other children who lived on McAdoo Avenue in north Modesto.

He collected the newly minted quarters and foreign coins, and he kept a sketchbook, adding character drawings of his favorite Japanese cartoon, "Dragon Ball Z," a show he watched every day after school.

He was a boy who was a little "gordito," or chunky. And he wore thick glasses and had a ponytail of black hair that, when wet, could reach down his neck. He was a boy who was awkwardly entering adolescence at a new school.

Alberto was buried Tuesday, after more than 200 friends, neighbors and community members crowded into St. Frances of Rome Catholic Church in Riverbank for a funeral Mass.

Modesto Police Chief Roy W. Wasden, Mayor Carmen Sabatino and several City Council members attended the Mass, which was conducted in Spanish.

The 11-year-old boy was fatally shot last Wednesday during a SWAT team raid of the Sepulveda family's Highway Village home. Police were after Alberto's father, Moises, who was arrested on a federal drug warrant. He was since been released from custody on the promise of posting $20,000 bond.

From the first day, police have termed the shooting a "tragic accident." The police chief again offered condolences to the family on Tuesday.

"These are tragic circumstances," Wasden said. "I'm sorry for the grieving mother and family; I'm sorry for the officer involved ... I'm devastated by this, the department is devastated."

After the Mass, 75 vehicles convoyed behind the hearse carrying Alberto's body.

En route to St. Stanislaus Catholic Cemetery, the quarter-mile-long procession detoured by Prescott Senior Elementary School, where Alberto recently started the seventh grade.

Students were just settling into their desks for mid-morning classes. Outside the school, all was quiet. The California and American flags drooped at half-staff, where they've flown since the day after the shooting in memory of the boy.

Principal Rex Wetzel said he consulted with crisis counselors and the school district's own psychologists before deciding not to let the school's faculty and 730 seventh- and eighth-graders witness the procession.

"We felt it would be too disruptive," he said. "Basically, it would have been a media circus out there. We wanted to keep emotions on a calm level. We didn't want to stir things up again."

Wetzel said counselors have been meeting with students and teachers since last week. He said one counselor went to each of Alberto's classes on Thursday, the day after the boy was killed.

The day after the shooting was particularly difficult, especially for friends of Alberto.

Twelve-year-old Jordan Haueter had known Alberto since they were classmates at Chrysler Elementary School four years ago.

"Most people didn't do their work," he said, recalling the day after the shooting. "They just put their heads down."

Jocelyn Rosado, 13, who didn't know Alberto well, laid a bouquet of flowers on the makeshift memorial in front of the family's house in the days after the shooting.

"Everybody's crying at school," she said. "Students are talking about it a lot. They're asking, 'How could it be an accident?'"

At the cemetery on Scenic Drive, the Rev. Alvaro Lopez, associate pastor of St. Frances of Rome, continued to pray with the family.

Alberto's brother, Moises Jr., and five male cousins, all wearing white carnations affixed above their hearts on their white cotton shirts, carried his coffin to the grave.

Moments later, they removed their flowers and added them to the bouquet of white roses placed on the coffin.

Moises Sepulveda held onto his wife, Sonia, as she stumbled toward the casket. She stretched her arms around the dark blue coffin and leaned forward, hugging it. Moises Sepulveda lightly pulled her away. Sobbing family members rushed to help her return to her seat, her body shaking.

"They are destroyed," said family friend Larry Hill. "A police officer killed their little boy. They just don't understand."

Moises Sepulveda, with eyes swollen, cradled his wife. They watched other relatives and friends grab handfuls of soft soil and toss it on top of the lowered coffin, a tradition at Catholic funerals.

Moises Jr. and his cousins shoveled the remaining soil over the coffin. Other relatives covered the burial site with the hundreds of flowers that had decorated the makeshift altar that was created in the hours following the shooting death.