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. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake