Saturday, August 21, 2010

Trevon Cole Inquest Lesson Learned: Don't Advertise Selling Drugs On Craigslist

Trevon Cole was killed by a Metro police officer while officers were serving a warrant for marijuana on June 11, 2010. From the account of the Las Vegas Sun, this is a very strange coroner's inquest.
First, when the shooting occurred, the fiancee and family of Cole declared that Cole was not dealing in pot but it was shown that Cole, in fact was dealing in pot. How did the cops find out? Why, Cole advertised it on Craigslist. "In April, Yant had found an ad Cole posted on Craigslist advertising that he sold marijuana and asked Metro Detective Christopher Cannon to contact him. In the weeks leading up to the shooting, Cannon, operating as an undercover officer, purchased about $900 worth of marijuana from Cole.
One of those transactions was captured on video recorded by a reality television series that was filming Cannon and other officers doing undercover work. That footage was played for the jury on Friday."

Ok. If you don't want cops involved you drug business, don't advertise selling drugs on Craigslist. Maybe sales weren't going so good for him.
Next: "Cannon and Special Agent Matthew Peak, who works for the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, testified Friday morning about the events that occurred at Cole’s residence.
Peak said the Air Force was investigating Cole as possibly a person who had sold narcotics to military personnel at Nellis Air Force Base.
Peak and three other Air Force investigators were present the night the warrant was executed. He said he and his fellow officers remained outside while Metro detectives entered the apartment."

Three police officers from Nellis were at the scene of the warrant search? Why? I thought MP's did not have jurisdiction outside of Nellis. Even if Cole sold drugs to Nellis AFB airmen, all they would get is some airmen names. Did they need that information at the scene? Seems like there were more people at the scene than necessary.
The autopsy said that Cole had a gun shot to the cheek and he died of the concussion injuries because of the shot to the cheek. Seems like the gun had to be very close to Cole's head to cause that kind of injury.
The story says that the officer that shot Cole had a flashlight that did not work. Would it be too much to ask to make sure your equipment worked before the raid? Maybe the officer that shot Cole could have asked the Nellis officers if they had a working flashlight before the team entered the apartment.
Finally, the fiancee of Cole has completely changed her story from the time of the shooting to the time of the inquest. Maybe the thought of money from a lawsuit changed her mind?
As I have posted before, I have suspicions about this shooting. I have questioned what a "furtive movement" is and I still question it.
But what is clear is that Cole was not this innocent person people made him out to be. He was a drug dealer. But that is not the reason for cops to shoot him. It may have been an accident or perhaps Cole did make a move towards the officer's gun. I doubt we will ever know.
The family will sue and Metro will settle before a court trial, so we will never know what happened. And the officer involved might be transferred to be a clerk in the records department.
Bottom line, don't sell drugs on Craigslist.

3 comments:

  1. No surprise that Bill Shakespeare's heroes were also villains, eh?

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  2. I notice you never did a follow up to this. Where we find out that the cops were so incompetent that they served the warrant on the wrong guy. But like all short attention span people you cant be bothered to follow up on anything.

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  3. If you have read this blog, you would have found out that I have blogged extensively about this, more than local blogger. And that includes this week when the family sued Metro.
    And they didn't serve the warrant on the wrong guy. He was the guy they were after. The cop just pulled up the wrong information.
    And I did not take the side of the cops.
    So, when do I get an apology?

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