cannabisnews.com: Raid Turns Deadly





Raid Turns Deadly
Posted by CN Staff on May 18, 2002 at 06:48:31 PT
By Michael Rothfeld and Mitchell Freedman
Source: Newsday.com
An early morning drug raid in Aquebogue went awry Friday when a New York State Police trooper shot and killed a man who was one target of an investigation into a marijuana and cocaine ring, law enforcement officials said.The shooting at 12 Overlook Dr. came seconds after two State Police troopers with guns drawn entered John Rasanen's dark basement bedroom at about 6 a.m. Friday, police said. Rasanen, 27, was in bed with a woman when the troopers stormed inside.
"He was sleeping," said Maj. Walter Heesch, commander of the State Police on Long Island. "They announced they were coming in, he was awoken, and despite repeated commands announcing that they were police and to lie down, he lunged toward the trooper, who was armed, obviously, and this resulted in him being shot once in the chest, causing his death."Rasanen died on the spot. Investigators later found a loaded automatic handgun that they believe was Rasanen's behind a television within feet of his body. Heesch said Rasanen did not appear to be moving in the direction of that gun, however, and he did not know whether Rasanen was attempting to grab the trooper's gun, a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol.State Police would not release the identity of the trooper who fired at Rasanen or the names of the four others, three women and a man, who were at the house at the time of the raid.Detectives from the State Police's Bureau of Criminal Investigation and its Albany-based Internal Affairs Bureau were combing the house and interviewing witnesses Friday. They will submit their findings to the Suffolk County district attorney's office when the investigation is complete and a grand jury will likely be asked to determine whether the shooting was justified, officials said.The state penal law says a police officer may use "deadly physical force" against someone only if the officer "reasonably believes" the person is committing or attempting to commit certain felonies, threatening to use "imminent" physical force against someone else, or if the officer believes it is "reasonably necessary" to use "deadly physical force" to defend himself or someone else against the "imminent use of deadly force."The raid in Aquebogue Friday morning began simultaneously with three others in Eastern Suffolk as part of what police said was a six-month joint narcotics investigation conducted by the State and Suffolk County police. At the three other locations, seven people were arrested and two more were being sought, said Suffolk Chief of Department Philip Robilotto.Rasanen's only drug conviction was a misdemeanor for cocaine possession for which he received 3 years' probation, according to court records, but Heesch said he was a "mid-level" narcotics distributor of late. "He was doing substantial weight," Heesch said.Armed with arrest and search warrants, officers from State and Suffolk police began with a briefing at 5 a.m. Friday, then dispersed to the four homes. Twenty of them went to the split-level house on Overlook Drive that Rasanen was renting.According to Heesch, the events transpired this way: Eight officers from State Police's Mobile Response Team walked up to the front door, announced they were coming in, and used a battering ram to enter. Four went upstairs and four downstairs, he said. Upstairs, a man and a woman were sleeping in two different rooms. Downstairs, a sergeant and a trooper found a woman sleeping in a living area.Two other troopers entered Rasanen's bedroom, where they found him and a woman. Rasanen sprang up, Heesch said, and the shooting occurred."It's very quick," Heesch said.Heesch said all four raids were linked as part of the ongoing investigation of East End drug sales. All four of the state cops in the room during the shooting are being questioned about the incident. "There are a lot of loose ends to tie up," Heesch said.Police and sheriff's deputies also raided 10 Birch Ct. in Northampton, where Rasanen's parents, Leroy and Peggy, live and where John Rasanen has lived in the past. Daniel Rodgers, a Riverhead attorney who said he was representing Rasanen on "minor traffic violations," said police seized a car and two motorcycles from the house.On Overlook Drive, three or four police cars blocked the road most of the day.Rodgers came to the scene and complained to reporters that police had lied to him when he asked about the victim. Rodgers said Rasanen's parents had called him around 8:30 a.m., because they heard something about someone getting shot on the radio. "They heard a rumor he was injured," Rodgers said.Rodgers said State Police at the Hampton Bays barracks told him Rasanen was under arrest and refused to show him the arrest warrant. He said he called Rasanen's family members and told them he was not hurt. Then, he said, he went to the scene and learned that Rasanen was dead."On behalf of the family, what happened is an absolute tragedy," Rodgers said. "The police refuse to talk to us. The police are indicating, by their conduct, that they have something to hide..."Heesch said he couldn't comment on Rodgers' complaint because he was still gathering information about Friday morning's events.Neighbors in Northampton said Rasanen, who had three brothers, had attended Riverhead High School but did not graduate. Kenneth Harris said Rasanen was a good friend of his son, Kenneth Jr., and both loved riding motorcycles. Rasanen had both a dirt bike and a Japanese high-performance motorcycle. Sometimes Harris would pay Rasanen to cut down trees."He was a good kid. He never bothered anyone," Harris said. "I can't believe it. He kept his hair short. He was a clean-cut kid." Note: State Trooper shoots suspect in drug probe. Staff writers Keiko Morris, Robin Topping and Eden Laikin contributed to this story.Source: Newsday (NY)Author: Michael Rothfeld and Mitchell FreedmanPublished: May 18, 2002Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc.Contact: letters newsday.comWebsite: http://www.newsday.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Tom & Rollie  Memorial Pagehttp://freedomtoexhale.com/rb.htmA Special Report: Hooked on SWAT http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10651.shtmlSWAT Officer Kills Boy, 11 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7033.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by qqqq on May 19, 2002 at 01:05:10 PT
...here's the scary part......
..This murder will end up alot like the Rainbow Farm murders....Murders will continue to be allowed,and excused ......all the authorities need to do,is mention drugs,,a gun,,of a suspected terrorist,,and they basically have a license to kill....When a cop can raid your home,,and KILL you,,it's a good sign that you are no longer in a country that is American !....... think about it,,you're a cop,,you break into someones house,,and break into their bedroom,and you shoot and kill them,because you "thought",they were going for your gun!......
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Comment #8 posted by paul peterson on May 18, 2002 at 20:14:36 PT:
OOPS-I SPOKE TOO SOON (OR TOO LATE)
Hey, I just went to that New New York paper for an update and yep! they already have the goods on the stakeout-two guys have been "charged" with cocaine-marijuana possession and intent-plus a buncha cash $5 G's-the title of the story: "SHOOTING JUSTIFIED, STATE POLICE SAY". I'm still wondering why they wouldn't have said anything on the scanner right away about drugs being found at the scene-Why did that only come on later on, after they knew they wouldn't be able to dump the body? This is sounding more and more like an AL CAPONE job to me, not a modern "Christian" society, more like before the "GREAT SOCIETY", before the "McCARTHY ERA", before the 'NEW DEAL', back before the crash of the "REVENUERS" & "MOONSHINERS", back before those "THOMPSON GUNNERS" or "TOMMY GUNS" got outlawed by the ROBERT STACK GUYS they used to use on the FBI crime shows where they bullet holed those 1927 Chryslers with remarkable precision at least once an episode. (And that was when you could get your car in any color, as long as it was black). Signing off for now, time to leave town. PAUL
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Comment #7 posted by PAUL PETERSON on May 18, 2002 at 19:56:55 PT:
REMEMBER, THE POLICE STATE IS ADDICTED TO POWER
POWER CORRUPTS, ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. Its just a shame that since the police made this drug war happen (with the violence, guns, fear, huge profits to be made from prohibition, etc.) now not only are the police scared of the methods adopted to resist ie: a propensity to meet violence with violence, they are ADDICTED TO THE DRUG WAR FORFEITURE BUDGETARY "FIX" PROFITS. Any good addiction evaluator knows that when you get a bunch of addicts together, their is a mob mentality that sets in. When the addicts brandish the "DEVICE" that constitutes the associational method to induce the tremendous upsurge of dopamine ie the "rush", even if there is no "drug" in the works, the rush will still come. These police were merely playing through the steps of a typical addictive behavior- They knock on the door, they associate the set/setting to an adrenaline surge, the door kicks in, the mob enters, the bust is on, the carefully honed survival instincts seek prey, anybody that makes any sudden move-BOOM, they are dead. Sorry, wrong address, blah, blah. YOU KNOW DAMNED WELL-IF THEY FOUND DRUGS THEY WOULD HAVE TRUMPETTED THAT ALL OVER THE MEDIA-Since they didn't say it in the print, they didn't have the goods (yet). Wanna bet me they will have some 10 pounds of "high grade" marijuana in the flat by daybreak? All they have to do is get the baggies to the morgue, to get the blood stained fingerprints of the stiff on the clear plastic envelope. There are some kids that woke up to gunfire really scared by now-they will say whatever is necessary to keep from going to jail for 20-30 years because their friend was killed (now it is a homicide, etc.). Of course, how convenient, that pot stays in the urine for like 6 weeks-Anybody that had traces (even if the house was clean & spick & span) will be a sitting duck for the "trafficing" charges they have already been booked on, merely because the DRUG WAR BUDGET ADDICTS CAN'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT A BUST TO COVER UP FOR THEIR OWN ADDICTIVE BEHAVIOR (TO THE BANG BANG REFLEX GODS, THAT IS).NICE TOUCH GUYS, THAT PART ABOUT THE DEAD GUY NOT EVEN BEING HURT AND STUFF-DID THEY REALLY BELIEVE THEY WERE GONNA GET EVERYBODY TO DENY THE BUST WENT BAD? WERE THEY GONNA TRY TO DUMP THE BODY IN THE RIVER OR SOMETHING? Now why would honest blue shirts deny over the radio that somebody died? AND THIS IS IN THAT NEW NEW YORK STATE, where the mayor has gone to confession and likes this stuff, and has become a legend in the bus barns, the guy that toked and smiled about it-not like that BILL CLINTON LIER. These people need a mommy very, very badly. IS EVERYBODY REGISTERED TO VOTE YET? IF NOT, WILL YOU LET THEM CONTINUE WITH THIS FIASCO and stay home and just watch TV through the election, while POLICE CLONES GET OUT THEIR VOTE IN DROVES? PLEASE HELP GET THESE GUYS OUT OF OFFICE. I'm done now, thank you, and thanks for listening. PAUL 
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Comment #6 posted by freedom fighter on May 18, 2002 at 14:58:13 PT
Boys in the Blue
the cowards! Anybody saw the Training Day? Aint' that much difference here. All that for a car and two motorbikes! Maybe some cash are missing.. who knows?! ff
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on May 18, 2002 at 14:30:37 PT
Remember Fred Hampton
This is not exactly the same thing but related because the Drug War is a proxy race war:http://www.providence.edu/afro/students/panther/hamptonsr.htmlThat Unforgettable MorningThat evening Fred Hampton and several Party members including William O'Neal came home to the BPP Headquarters after a political education class. O'Neal volunteered to make the group dinner. He slipped a large dose of secobarbital in Fred's kool-aid and left the apartment around 1:30am, a little while later, Fred fell asleep. Around 4:30am on December 4, 1969 the heavily armed Chicago Police attacked the Panthers' apartment. They entered the apartment by kicking the front door down and then shooting Mark Clark pointblank in the chest. Clark was sleeping in the living room with a shotgun in his hand. His reflexes responded by firing one shot at the police before he died. That bullet was then discovered to be the only shot fired at the police by the Panthers. Their automatic gunfire entered through the walls of Fred and his pregnant girlfriend's room. Fred was shot in the shoulder. Then two officers entered the bedroom and shot Fred at pointblank in his head to make sure that he was dead, and no longer a so-called menace to society. It has been said that one officer stated, "he's good and dead now." The officers then dragged Fred's body out of his bedroom and again open fired on the members in the apartment. The Panthers were then beaten and dragged across the street where they were arrested on charges of attempted murder of the police and aggravated assault. The incident also wounded four other Panther members. For more information look at our page about COINTELPRO and Government Oppression of the BPP.
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Comment #4 posted by Dankhank on May 18, 2002 at 13:10:04 PT:
Hyenas at it again ...
so they killed another man as he was waking up.Takes a really brave man to shoot an unarmed half-asleep man.There's got to be a special place in hell for these rogue hyenas ...
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Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on May 18, 2002 at 12:43:27 PT
It's a police assassination
Just like back in the Black Panther days.
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Comment #2 posted by Letsgetfree on May 18, 2002 at 11:26:16 PT
The WoSDs
claims another victim. How much bullshit has to happen beofer anyone gets outraged?!? They didn't mention at all if drugs were found in the house, and if so how much. he was part of a marijuana and cocaine ring, whatever that is, so of course he deserved to die. Is this sanity? How many lives must be ruined because of this pathetic war on Some drugs? People, and americans in particular, are such sheep! The media owns their asses. Scary, very scary.Hey on a positive note i was planning on trying to expose some of the afformentioned sheep about what's really going on. this site is hilarious: http://forums.sptimes.com/Forums/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=22The people there are truely lapping up the bile Bush and co. are spewing. Very funny. i know the people who post on here as some of the smartest people i've come across, and i think you guys coulld show the sheeple some light of truth.anyways this article pissed me off. WTF we have to do something, the police state is here, how do we fight it now? democracy is dead or brainwashed, either way it's useless, so what do we do?
Lets Wake UpLets Get Free
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Comment #1 posted by Patrick on May 18, 2002 at 07:35:28 PT
Pluck
Pluck Pluck Pluck Pluck and more plucking death by drug cop.
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