THE PEYTON STRICKLAND SHOOTING News & Observer's Excellent Coverage FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER Published on Thursday, February 22, 2007 Our View: New Hanover Sheriff’s Office needs to rethink its SWAT training. Permission granted to shake your head and wonder what, if anything, they were thinking. They, in this case, are supervisors in the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. Specifically, supervisors of the Emergency Response Team. That’s the group that shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old Cape Fear Community College student in December, when they bungled a no-knock search. According to reports of the incident, former Emergency Response Team member Christopher Long heard the team’s battering ram hit Peyton Strickland’s front door. Long thought it was a gunshot, coming from inside the house. He opened fire. Strickland was killed. Long was subsequently fired, but the New Hanover district attorney failed to get a second-degree murder indictment against him. State prosecutors are reviewing the case. Meanwhile, Maj. Arch Jones of the Sheriff’s Office says there are no plans to change the emergency response team’s training or policies because of the shooting. “It was a mistake,” he said, “and I don’t see how you could prevent a mistake.” That’s a statement that should strike fear into the hearts of New Hanover’s law-abiding public. Trigger-happy “mistakes” are OK and there’s no reason to do anything to prevent them in the future. Sorry, but we see plenty of training opportunities here — important, life-saving training opportunities. For one, there’s the matter of communication. Making sure all the members of the entry team know when that battering ram will hit, so they know the difference between that sound and gunfire. There’s also the matter of training team members to recognize whether or not a suspect is armed before they open fire. That’s hard to do in forced-entry situations, but that’s why only the best-trained, most competent cops belong on those teams. More important, there’s the matter of guidelines for when to use forced entry. The technique is overused by many departments. Granted, the cops had reason to believe that Strickland had guns. But he was suspected of stealing PlayStation 3 game consoles, not items — like drugs — that could be quickly disposed of if the suspect knew a search was imminent. What was Strickland going to do? Flush the video-game consoles down the toilet? The police could have announced their presence and ordered Strickland to come out. They could have waited for days, if need be. And no one would have died. The New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office has some housecleaning to do. Starting with top officers who still don’t get that what happened to Peyton Strickland was wrong, and so preventable. Star News 2-19 article - Major Arch Jones head of ERT
PEYTON STRICKLAND'S AUTOPSY Peyton Strickland's autopsy reveals that the bullet that struck the 18 year old Strickland in the front of the head traveled through "an intermediate target" prior to striking Mr. Strickland. Peyton was facing his killer when he was shot. • There was no alcohol in Peyton's system when he died • The head shot is what killed him • Evidence EMS attempted resuscitation • Both bullets past thru the body • Neither bullet was found prior to the autopsy • Bullet that struck Peyton in the middle of the forehead was tumbling and traveled in an up/down path thru the brain. The hole in the forehead was 1 inch by 1.5 inches in size. • Powder, stippling and tattooing in the center of the chest indicates an intermediate range gun shot wound and that the door was open when this shot hit Strickland
NEWS & OBSERVER BREAKING NEWS The bullet that hit Strickland in the chest was likely fired from no more than 2 feet away. This means that Strickland was potentially close enough to touched by Deputy Long when he shot him in the chest. Considering there must be room for the door to have swung open, it is possible that Peyton was at the door when he was shot in the head, falls backwards and is shot again in the chest once the door was forced opened. Either that or Long entered the house after shooting Strickland thru the door and then shooting Strickland in the chest. But the official statement is that Long never entered the house. Instead, according to the official statement, Long backed off the stoop, into the yard, and cried out for Jesus. New
Grand Jury has a deputy sitting on it.Timothy
D. Lougher,
randomly selected this month to sit on the grand jury for
a year, has worked as a detention officer at the county jail
for two years. Lougher did not return calls Wednesday. Mindy Loche's N&O 1/25 article
18 YEAR OLD STUDENT SHOT AND KILLED BY NEW HANOVER COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES Why was an heavily armed paramilitary strike force ordered to assist UNCW Campus Police to serve a seach warrant for the recovery of evidence in the robbery of a Playstation 3 video game?
We want to assure our readers and listeners to wait until Monday, when the real story begins to unfold. Want to speak out about this? Go to our blogsite. crime.blogs.com
GETTING RESTLESS - Wanting Sid Causey to be removed from office There has been a good deal of discussion on the internet about the shooting death of Peyton Strickland. One such site is calling for the draft of a petition to remove Sheriff Causey from office. Some are tlaking about a peaceful protest at a Commissioner's meeting, and a few are talking about taking to the streets. Causey vows to take responsibility New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey vowed Thursday to take the heat if a State Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the shooting death of 18-year-old Peyton Strickland reveals mistakes on the part of his office's Emergency Response Team. "It's all my responsibility," the sheriff said. "And whatever happens - good or bad - I'm going to take responsibility for it." STAR NEWS 12/08
Remove Causey from Office (below from the petition) "The statute provides for the various factors that could cause a sheriff to be removed." According to that statute, those include: Willful or habitual neglect or refusal to perform the duties of his office Willful misconduct or maladministration in office Corruption Extortion Upon conviction of a felony Intoxication, or upon conviction of being intoxicated. The procedure is neither a criminal nor civil one and does not require a jury. I think it wouldn't be difficult to prove, Willful misconduct or maladministration in office , all we would need is the County Attorney or District Attorney to sign off on it. The county has a liability issue at stake. Showing a corrective attempt at fixing the problem may go a long way in the penalty phase, in both Rummer and Strickland civil trials. I seriously doubt the DA will sign on. It would be a political mess for him. Both Democrats, both elected officials, not many have the nerve to do something like that. But the County Attorney would be showing good faith. After all this man receives 30 million dollars of tax payer money and hands us an unarmed dead teenager as his legacy. If this was the only time death came as a result of improper training and authority it would be one thing, but there is a history here. Time to round up the troops and make a go at getting rid of this man and his staff.
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