Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs

**KelJu** · 08-08-2008, 08:34 PM

(CNN) -- A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme.

"This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. "We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff's deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing."

The raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home.

Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

Calvo said he had just returned home from walking his two Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, when his mother-in-law told him a package had arrived for his wife, Trinity Tomsic.

Moments later, Calvo was in his room changing for a meeting when he heard commotion downstairs.

"The door flew open," he said. "I heard gunfire shoot off. There was a brief pause and more gunfire."

Calvo said he was brought downstairs at gunpoint in his boxer shorts, handcuffed and forced onto the floor with his mother-in-law near the carcass of one of dead dogs.

"I noticed my two dead dogs lying in pools of their own blood," Calvo said.

Calvo said his mother-in-law is still recovering from the incident.

"She got the worst of it," Calvo said. "She was literally in the kitchen, cooking a lovely pasta dish, and they brought down the door and shot our dogs."

While he was being held, Calvo said, he told police he is the town's mayor, but they didn't believe him.

Berwyn Heights has its own police force, he said, but Prince George's County police did not notify the municipal authorities of their interest in his home or the package.

"They didn't know my name. All they knew was my wife's name. They matched that to the registration of the car," Calvo said. "It was that lack of communication that really led to what has really been the most traumatic experience of our lives."

After the raid, arrests were made in the package interception scheme.

The incident has prompted the couple to call for a federal investigation because, they say, they don't believe police are capable of conducting an internal investigation.

"They've said they've done nothing wrong," Calvo said. "I didn't sign up for this fight, but I think what we have to do now is make changes to how Prince George's County police and Prince George's County sheriff's department operate."

Calvo said authorities entered his home without knocking and refused to show him a warrant when he requested one.

But Prince George's County Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said legal counsel had informed her that "no-knock" warrants do not exist in Maryland.

Taylor said authorities were acting on a warrant issued based on information available to them at the time.

"This warrant was for permission to search the premises," she said. "The special operations team that supported us made a decision about the necessity of entry at the point of being on the scene."

"No-knock" warrants have drawn criticism before. In Atlanta, Georgia, Kathryn Johnston, 92, was shot to death by police in a botched drug raid involving such a warrant in November.

Taylor, a self-described dog lover, expressed sympathy for the loss of Calvo's dogs, but stopped short of apologizing for the incident.

"We've done these similar kinds of operations over and over again, to the tune of removing billions of dollars of drugs from the community and without people or animals being harmed," she said. "We don't want any of our operations to result in the injury or loss of anybody, and certainly not animals."

The deputies have said they killed the two animals because they felt threatened.

"I would say that the dogs presented a threat, I would imagine, to the special operations situation," Taylor said.

Meanwhile, Calvo and his wife said members of the community have expressed sympathy and concern about the incident.
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At a news conference Thursday, Tomsic tearfully recalled a recent encounter with a neighbor who used to wave at the couple as they walked Payton and Chase.

"She gave me a big hug," Tomsic said. "She said, 'If the police shot your dogs dead and did this to you, how can I trust them?' "

Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs - CNN.com

That is major bullshit. All the way around, that is bullshit, and this isn't the first time I have heard about these things happening.

**Little Wing** · 08-08-2008, 09:49 PM

over pot? wtf?

**FishOrCutBait** · 08-08-2008, 09:55 PM

absolutely ridiculous.

they ILLEGALLY entered his house, and killed his pets, which OBVIOUSLY were going to defend their home. and didnt show him a warrant when he asked to see one, pretty sure thats breaking the law as well.

alien looking and smelling strangers kicked the door down, wouldnt your dog growl?

**squanto** · 08-08-2008, 10:25 PM

lol, that's right down the street from where I live....

**squanto** · 08-08-2008, 10:28 PM

For the record that was NOT my package

**Little Wing** · 08-08-2008, 10:29 PM

you read my mind

**squanto** · 08-08-2008, 10:35 PM

**squanto** · 08-08-2008, 10:42 PM

But seriously guys. You gotta watch out for those labrador retrievers. They are ferocious animals, the SWAT team probably feared for their safety.

EDIT: Forgot there were two!!

**squanto** · 08-08-2008, 10:43 PM

VS

**KelJu** · 08-09-2008, 07:45 AM

I didn't start this thread to bash police by the way. This is to bash legislators. This is an incendent where a hothead bad apple had the authority to do this and get away with it. There is no fucking reason a armored swat member would have to shoot a fucking lab.

If it happens to a mayor and they get away with it, imagine what they could do to you?

**Little Wing** · 08-09-2008, 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by KelJu

I didn't start this thread to bash police by the way. This is to bash legislators. This is an incendent where a hothead bad apple had the authority to do this and get away with it. There is no fucking reason a armored swat member would have to shoot a fucking lab.

If it happens to a mayor and they get away with it, imagine what they could do to you?

i live in a neighborhood that is in town but so quiet at night you'd think you were out in the country. last night a dog was barking incessantly so i called the police making it clear i wasn't complaining about the dog just thinking they might want to see what had him alarmed (neighbors had $800 kayaks stolen recently). the dispatcher said there wasn't an officer in the area so i got dressed n went to see. as i approached the house an officer must have already been sent there before my call and was walking up to the house. there were 2 pit bulls chained to a porch railing and the officer, wearing just a regular street uniform, walked up to the dogs. cautiously and talking softly to reassure them he easily petted them. it was rainy and their owner had worked an extra shift at the hospital. they had shelter, food n water and were clearly either just wondering where mommy was or were doing their job warning about some human or animal varmint.

this article is sickening and hopefully the shooters will not get away with it. i have a feeling it's not over especially now that it's in the media.

**Little Wing** · 08-09-2008, 09:36 AM

Feds investigating drug raid on small-town mayor's home - CNN.com

The story

Federal officials have opened a civil rights investigation into a police narcotics raid on the home of a Maryland mayor in which police burst in without knocking and shot the mayor's two dogs to death.
Mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and forced to kneel on the floor during the July 29 raid, which police said was part of an investigation into a scheme in which drugs apparently were sent to unsuspecting people.

**maniclion** · 08-09-2008, 12:56 PM

"Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted."

The Sheriffs office is sending this package to other people or am I not understanding something? If not them, who the fuck would send free drugs to some strangers house? This part has me more confused than why the police don't do a little homework about the occupants of the home they are about to storm into and start blazing away in.....

**ZECH** · 08-09-2008, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by maniclion

"Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted."

The Sheriffs office is sending this package to other people or am I not understanding something? If not them, who the fuck would send free drugs to some strangers house? This part has me more confused than why the police don't do a little homework about the occupants of the home they are about to storm into and start blazing away in.....

This is what gets me. Why send it to unknowing recips? That's entrapment.
Now if the police were acting in good faith on a search warrant, then they should be covered. No knocks are allowed in NC for drug warrants. Thinking here that is if you knock and announce, they have time to destroy the evidence. Each state is probably different. There has got to be something here that is not known.

**MCx2** · 08-09-2008, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by maniclion

"Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted."

The Sheriffs office is sending this package to other people or am I not understanding something? If not them, who the fuck would send free drugs to some strangers house? This part has me more confused than why the police don't do a little homework about the occupants of the home they are about to storm into and start blazing away in.....

It's a classic scheme actually. Credit card thieves use this method all the time. A package that is below a certain value doesn't need to be signed for, so typically thieves will send packages to abandoned homes and pick them up later. From what I understand about this one though is the delivery guy was in on the scheme and I guess there was some confusion as to which package contained the goods.

**clemson357** · 08-10-2008, 07:30 AM

Sometimes I feel like America is on the fast track to a police state.

**Little Wing** · 08-10-2008, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by clemson357

Sometimes I feel like America is on the fast track to a police state.

was my first thought reading this.

**quark** · 08-10-2008, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by clemson357

Sometimes I feel like America is on the fast track to a police state.

Don't kid yourself, we're already there.

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