Warrant
As justification for the no-knock warrant, the Atlanta Police Department initially claimed that the police were searching for drug dealers after a police informant was said to have bought crack at Johnston's home. However, the informant later denied having bought drugs at her house, and suspicion about the incident sparked a federal and state investigation. In the affidavit police used to obtain a search warrant for Johnston's house, Atlanta narcotics officers alleged their informant bought drugs inside Johnston's home earlier in the day from a man named "Sam", and that the home had video surveillance equipment justifying the no knock warrant. In an interview with Atlanta television station WAGA a few days after Johnston's shooting, the informant denied having gone to her house and said that after the shooting, police pressured him to lie and say that he had. The informant denied that he had ever been to Johnston's house. According to WSB-TV in Atlanta, Detective Junnier told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that some of the information used to obtain the search warrant on Johnston's home was false. While the original warrant application had said that a police informant had bought drugs at Johnston's house from a man named "Sam", WSB-TV reported that the real source of the information had been an alleged drug dealer who said police had pressured him to lie. The station reported that experts said this man's word would not have been enough to legally justify the no-knock warrant.
Read more about this topic: Kathryn Johnston Shooting
Famous quotes containing the word warrant:
“I’ll sing you a new ballad, and I’ll warrant it first-rate,
Of the days of that old gentleman who had that old estate;
When they spent the public money at a bountiful old rate
On ev’ry mistress, pimp, and scamp, at ev’ry noble gate,
In the fine old English Tory times;”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1890)
“Sometimes, when I compare myself with other men, it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any deserts that I am conscious of; as if I had a warrant and surety at their hands which my fellows have not, and were especially guided and guarded. I do not flatter myself, but if it be possible they flatter me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Here’s the challenge, read it. I warrant there’s vinegar and pepper in’t.
Fabian. Is’t so saucy?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)