Pubdate: Wed, 17 Feb 1999
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal (KS)
Copyright: 1999 The Topeka Capital-Journal
Contact:  http://cjonline.com/
Author: The Associated Press

AUTHORITIES RELEASE ACCOUNT OF SHOOTING, SAY MARIJUANA FOUND IN HOUSE

OSAWATOMIE -- A police raid that left an Osawatomie man dead turned up what
appeared to be a small amount of marijuana, investigators said.

Willie Heard, 46, was killed early Saturday -- the day before his
birthday -- when he picked up a .22-caliber rifle and confronted officers
who burst into his house.

Relatives said Tuesday that the search warrant authorized officers to look
for crack cocaine, crack pipes, scales and other paraphernalia. Officers
searched the house with a dog and found two or three remnants of marijuana
cigarettes, said Gary Heard, Willie Heard's brother.

"That was already smoked marijuana," Gary Heard said. "There were small
little cigarettes."

William Delaney, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation spokesman, released this
account of the raid:

Officers from the Osawatomie and Paola police departments and Miami County
sheriff's deputies announced themselves and raided Heard's house at 1:25
a.m. Saturday. They found Heard in his bedroom armed with a rifle, and an
officer shot him once in the upper body.

Heard's 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, said she was sleeping on the couch
when officers burst in. She said they never identified themselves and that
she knew they were police only when she recognized officers she had seen
around Osawatomie.

"When they came in, all I heard them say was, 'Get down! Freeze!' " Ashley
said. "I screamed, 'Daddy!' and I think he thought his daughter was in
danger. He didn't know they were police officers, because he wouldn't have
hurt a police officer."

The officer who shot Heard is on administrative leave, Delaney said. He
wouldn't say which department the officer works for.

The KBI is working on a report of the raid that officials hope to send to
Miami County Attorney David Miller next week.

Miller will decide whether to file criminal charges.

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