Update on the Winnipeg Shooting

Last Saturday I reported that a shooting occurred during a drug raid in Winnipeg.

Here is a timeline of the events, courtesy of the Winnipeg Free Press:

How it happened

This is the sequence of events as described by witnesses to the police drug raid on 723 Jubilee just before 11 p.m. December 7.

1. After a squad of 12 police officers, some in uniform, some in plain clothes, secure the area around the 1,180-square-foot bungalow at 723 Jubilee, they break through a side door.

2. Bonnie Anderson, 55-year-old mother of the accused, is on the phone talking to her sister when police come through the door announcing themselves as "Winnipeg police". She screams. The family's two dogs are barking.

3. Daniell Ian Anderson, 21, is in his bedroom getting ready to watch the rented movie, Chasing Christmas. He bolts for the bathroom directly across the hall.

4. Anderson's girlfriend, 20-year-old Ashley Cochrane, is in the darkened living room turning off the outside Christmas lights. A police officer, described as wearing a "windbreaker" identifies himself to her as being with the Winnipeg Police Service.

5. After a police officer announces there is someone in the bathroom, a gun discharges from inside the bathroom. Three officers are wounded.

6. Anderson, having had three fingers of his left hand blown off and suffering another gunshot wound to his right elbow, is "dragged" out of the side door as his mother watches.

7. At 11:12 p.m., an ambulance is called to Jubilee and Cockburn -- a few doors away from the target home -- and conveys Anderson to St. Boniface Hospital.

Let me see here. Armed thugs bust down your door screaming and brandishing weapons. Do you think that grabbing a gun, hiding in the bathroom and defending yourself is a reasonable response?

Even if this kid had been selling drugs, there is absolutely no excuse for breaking down his door. What exactly was this supposed to accomplish? As Ken pointed out in the comments, this is standard operating procedure for the police. If they surprise the alleged drug dealer, they may prevent him from flushing his merchandise down the toilet. Although one has to wonder how much merchandise could possibly be flushed in the short period of time it takes to inform the inhabitants of the raid. Surely this isn't necessary for raids on homes with large quantities of drugs. Is it possible to stuff a few kilos of marijuana down the toilet as the cops stand outside your door? It's terrifying to think that marijuana users are being targetted like this.

Did the police think that Anderson was anything other than a kid selling a few bags of weed to supplement his income? How can the police possibly justify their actions? Were they acting on a Crime-Stopper tip?

This incident is just one more reason that the War on Some Drugs needs to end. Unfortunately, due to our cowardly politicians and uneducated public, there will be many more tragedies like this before this senseless death and destruction finally comes to an end.

Just realize what we could become.