From: hays@ssd.intel.com (Kirk Hays)
Subject: Re: No charges filed in SWAT killing
Organization: Intel Supercomputer Systems Division
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:51:41 GMT

In article <1992Aug11.021616.18748@microsoft.com>, alane@microsoft.com (Alan Ezekiel) writes:
|> The Seattle Times for August 8th has a front-page story entitled
|> "SWAT Killing: No Charges  //  State finds no negligence despite
|> split inquest jury".
|> 
|> To summarize the article: last March, the Snohomish County SWAT
|> team got a tip for a suspect in an armored-car robbery/murder.
|> They geared up and (in accordance with standard SWAT procedure)
|> assaulted the house with overwhelming force.
|> 
|> Unfortunately, there were a few problems.  (1) the suspect was
|> not in the house at the time, (2) his wife and two children
|> were, (3) the SWAT team did not announce their identity as police
|> officers, and (4) one of the deputies had an itchy trigger finger.
|> 
|> Net result?  Deputy Tony Aston shot and killed Robin Marie Pratt
|> in full view of her 6-year-old daughter and 5-year-old niece,
|> using his MP-5 submachine gun.  Pratt was totally blameless; she
|> heard men breaking down the door and windows, ran from her bedroom
|> to gather the children, and was shot to death without warning by
|> by Deputy Aston, who was in the hallway.

From the July 21st _Oregonian_:

EVERETT, Wash. -- Family members of a woman killed in a sheriff's
department Swat [sic] raid have filed claims seeking more than $87
million in damages from the county and three cities.

The relatives of Robin Marie Pratt, 28, claim they suffered emotional,
physical and psychological trauma stemming from her death.

Nineteen persons filed 21 claims against Snohomish County and the
cities of Lynnwood, Everett and Mountlake Terrace, seeking $100,000 to
as much as $5 million.

Pratt was fatally shot by a Snohomish County sheriff's deputy in a
pre-dawn raid March 28 on her apartment to arrest her husband. 
Members of a special weapons assault team stormed in after tossing a
flash-bang grenade and smashing through a glass door with a steel
battering ram.

A sheriff's internal review investigation concluded that sheriff's
Deputy Anthony Aston unintentionally discharged his submachine gun as
officers were rounding up the appartment's occupants.  Pratt was shot
in the neck and died at the scene.

The Swat [sic] team was looking for Pratt's husband, Larry, 29.  He was
implicated by an informant as a participant in a 1991 Loomis
armored-car robbery in Lynnwood in which one guard was killed.

Swat [sic] team members from Everett and Mountlake Terrace police
carried out simultaneous raids in their jurisdictions and arrested five
other men who were related to Pratt and who also were implicated by the
informant.

All charges against the men, including Pratt's husband, later were
dropped for lack of evidence.  Witnesses said Larry Pratt was at work
at the time of the robbery.  The others also had alibis.

Larry Pratt is seeking $40 million from the county and Lynnwood, a
Seattle suburb.  His 6-year-old daughter, Tanya, is asking $10 million
from them; his niece, 5-year-old Jessica Craig, seeks $10 million. 
Robin Pratt's parents are seeking $10 million from the county and
Lynnwood.

Other's seeking part of the $87 million in damages include the five
other men arrested and members of their families.

Family members allege that law-enforcement agencies failed to
investigate properly the criminal allegations against the Pratt family,
unlawfully entered their apartment and intentionally, recklessly or
negligently shot Robin Pratt.

The claims filed last week are a prelude to a civil lawsuit against the
municipalities, said John Muenster, a Seattle attorney representing the
Pratt family.  Under state law, damage claims had to be filed first,
and the earliest a civil suit can be filed is Sept. [sic] 14.

Snohomish County Deputy Executive Joni Earl said it was too early to
comment on the claims.

Greg Canova, a state assistant attorney general who conducted an
inquest into the shooting, is expected to decide this week whether the
state will file criminal charges against Aston, the deputy who shot
Pratt.

-- 
Kirk Hays - NRA Life.
Start your day with a little civil disobedience.  Call BATF at 1-800-ATF-GUNS or
1-800-RUN-GUNS, tell them what you think of gun grabbers and government employees
that encourage people to narc on their neighbors.  Good for the soul.
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns