Pubdate: Sun, 06 Feb 2005
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2005 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Andre Bowser, Of the Post and Courier Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

FAMILY QUESTION POLICE SEARCH TACTICS

Woman's Home Was Subject of Probe During Investigation, Arrest Of
Brother

A day after federal and local agents entered a North Charleston home
searching for a suspect wanted in a federal drug investigation,
relatives are questioning police tactics.

On Saturday, family members identified the man taken into police
custody Friday as Eduardo Bowman, who was found hiding in the Murray
Hill neighborhood after agents surrounded his mother's home. He was
arrested by police after they heard a noise from a nearby abandoned
house.

Alice Bowman said the hours-long standoff outside her Atlas Street
home was unnecessary. The 79-year-old was alone with her brother,
James Bowman, 77.

"The police asked me who was in the house, and I told them I was in
the house with my brother," she said. "They told me to come outside
with my hands up."

The North Charleston Police Department SWAT team assisted the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration in searching Bowman's home Friday
night, after she and her brother were escorted from the house.

Bowman said she questioned whether police had a search warrant. She
said law enforcement agents only provided her with a list of property
seized during the search.

"There are no names or signatures on the paper," she said. "Where is
the judge's signature?"

Bowman said authorities seized her bank statements and an address
book, among other personal documents. "None of that belongs to my son.
I haven't done anything wrong," said Bowman. DEA agents would not
comment Saturday about the case or a search warrant.

"This is an open and active investigation," said John Ozaluk, the
special agent in charge of the DEA in South Carolina. He would not say
whether agents presented a warrant before conducting their search or
whether they left a copy behind.

Bowman said her house was in ruins after the search. Saturday
afternoon, Bowman waded through piles of clothing and paper, and
struggled to repair closet doors torn from hinges.

She said she received a call from her son from the Charleston County
Detention Center, and she was told he was waiting for U.S. Marshals to
take him into custody.

Police and DEA agents went to the neighborhood after receiving a tip
at 3 p.m. Friday that Eduardo Bowman was inside the house. Using a
staging area around the corner from Bowman's home, North Charleston's
SWAT team rolled in using a SWAT tank, along with a mobile command
center and an armored transport unit.

Police spokesman Spencer Pryor said the investigation was being led by
the DEA, and that his department was only assisting in the federal
investigation.

Family members expect Eduardo Bowman to appear in federal court
Monday.

"We're going to be there to support him," said Barbara Simmons,
Eduardo Bowman's sister. "He turned his life around, he got a job and
got engaged, and he was trying to go on with his life."

Simmons said her family has already lost someone to drugs and
violence.

Among the documents taken from the home, Simmons said, was the death
certificate of Eduardo Bowman's son, 20-year-old Jammar Antwan West,
who was shot once in the chest by a North Charleston police officer in
the parking lot of Northwoods Mall in November. Police said at the
time that West fired the first shot during an undercover drug sting.
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