Kathryn Johnston Update
It was Fabian Sheats’ third felony drug arrest in four months. But on the afternoon of Nov. 21, according to a police report, he was looking to curry favor, so he told officers they could find a kilogram of cocaine in a house at 933 Neal Street N.W.
That encounter led police to the home of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly woman who lived alone behind burglar bars and kept a rusty revolver. When officers burst into the house just three hours after talking to Sheats, a shootout ensued that left the woman dead and three officers wounded. No cocaine was found.
Sheats’ arrest report, made public Thursday, sheds new light on why officers targeted Johnston’s home.
Police say they used Sheats’ tip to direct a confidential informant to the Neal Street house, where he made a drug buy, leading them to conduct the raid. A man named Alexis White later came forward to say he is a longtime informant and police asked him to lie after the shootings and say he bought drugs at the address. Police will not say who the informant was.
The fecal matter has hit the oscillating cooling device.
December 8th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
So any burned out drugged addicted crackhead can make up a story to get a deal with the cops and now your house will have the front door busted down so a SWAT team can point high powered rifles at your head? What ever happened to unreasonable search and seizure?
Would a court allow the testimony of Fabian Sheats?
Who is dumber in this story, the cops, the DA, or the Judge that signed the warrant. This was judicial and police malpractice of the fatal variety.
Why wasn’t there an investigation before the door was broken down? What kind of police department just takes the word of a crackhead and nothing more? Then to top it off the police force an informant to lie to cover up what really happened?
Where in the hell is Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on this one?
December 8th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
So they went in on Sheats’s tip and faked the “confidential informant” on the affidavit for the warrant. They should be tried for home invasion and capital murder.
December 8th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
What should happen is that everyone involved in this conspiracy – entirely up the chain of command – from desk sergeant to union officials to police chief and the mayor himself – ough tto be tried and convincted for conspiracy to commit murder (and then sentenced to the electric chair under Georgia’s felony murder rule).
That would put a stop to this shit fast.
Sadly, it won’t happen.