Could Deaths of 2 Police Officers in Armed Standoff Have Been Avoided by Calling the SWAT Team?
As police in St. Petersburg, Fla., mourn two fallen officers who were slain as they tried to arrest a violent suspect and rescue a colleague who had already been shot down this week, observers are wondering whether the tragedy might have been avoided if authorities had taken a more hands-off approach.
Told initially by the homeowner, Christine Lacy, that suspect Hydra Lacy, 39, was hiding in the attic and probably armed, police should have played a waiting game, Jon Shane, who formerly was a Newark, N.J., police SWAT team supervisor, tells the St. Petersburg Times.
“I would have backed out, sealed it up, nobody in, nobody out, and notified the SWAT team,” Shane said. But he and others also point out that all the facts aren’t known, so it isn’t certain why the officers initially sent to arrest Hydra Lacy on an outstanding warrant decided to climb up a ladder into the attic rather than hold off.
Attorney Andrew Yaffa represented the family of a slain Broward County Sheriff’s deputy killed in 2004 while executing an arrest warrant on a suspect who had previously threatened police. They won a $2 million settlement in 2009, after suing the sheriff’s office for not calling in a SWAT team.
Under a new department rule that also resulted from the case, a deputy in Broward County can now—if certain criteria are satisfied—call in the SWAT team without advance approval that used to be required, the newspaper reports.
“The suspect has to be barricaded in a confined space, have a known violent history and weapons involved,” says Yaffa of the required standard for calling in the SWAT team. “These criteria were clearly met in St. Petersburg.”
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “‘Looking for Evidence,’ Authorities Demolish House Where 2 Cops Were Fatally Shot Yesterday”
