As controversy continues to swell around the death of an elderly woman in Atlanta during an apparently mistaken drug raid, things may have gotten alot worse for the Atlanta police:
Three officers were wounded when they entered Kathryn Johnston’s home looking for cocaine based on tips from an informant, according to the search warrant released Monday by the Fulton County State Court.
Police said the informant told officers he had purchased drugs in the home earlier, prompting investigators to get a warrant. But Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said it was unclear whether there had been a drug deal or whether the suspected drug dealer actually exists.
“That’s what we’re going to have to investigate and determine,” Pennington said. “The officers are saying one thing, the confidential informant is saying something else.”
Monday evening, WAGA-TV aired an interview with a man who said that he was the informant, and that he had never purchased drugs at Kathryn Johnston’s home. The man, whose identity was obscured by the TV station, also said that police had asked him to lie about providing the information, but that that was before he knew the elderly woman had been killed in a shootout there.
If true, this would turn an accidental shooting, and probable negligent homicide, into something far worse.
