Man Who Shot at Cops During No-Knock Raid Acquitted on All Charges

First, from earlier this year:

Man who killed an officer in no-knock warrant will not be charged with murder

...in which a grand jury failed to indict. Now we have a trial jury that refuses to convict in a case which easily could have had a similar outcome:

Man Who Shot at Cops During No-Knock Raid Acquitted on All Charges

After a 9 hour deliberation, a jury has found Adrian Perryman, not guilty on all four counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer.

Trial jury affirmation that a badge does not protect you when you break into someone's home unannounced.

SAPD’s tactical response unit was executing a no-knock search warrant. The occupants in the house at the time were Perryman, his girlfriend Rebecca Flores, and Flores’s 3 year old grand daughter Savannah.

When Flores saw two shadowy men on the security cameras, she woke up Perryman, and tossed him his gun.

Perryman took the stand in his defense last week and told jurors how he had shouted a warning before he heard the front door go down and “unloaded” his gun.

“When I knew they were policemen, I lay down, face down,” he said, adding he dropped the gun and began apologizing. “I kept saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was y’all. I’ve been broken into before.’”

Of course, it's far too premature to claim that the no-knock warrant is "dead" from a judicial standpoint; however, this is a rare bright moment in what seems to be a quickening downward spiral into an oppressive police state.

a reply to: NthOther

My first thought was I am surprised he survived the encounter and had a chance to say he was sorry. Kinda surprised his face was not made part of the floor after a 'get even' beat down. There are reasons for 'no knock' raids that are hard to disagree with, however, there is absolutely no excuse for wrong address or even wrong people being assaulted by a swat team. The war on drugs and the war on terror has all but destroyed many of the things American's once took for granted. If one stands back an evaluates the success of either war, based on gains, then they are both total failures. Drugs are plentiful and Terrorist are under every bush according to NSA and all their reasons for snooping in at all forms of communications.

A little history about drug wars and drug profits is always interesting reading going all the way back to the last century and the British with China. www.sacu.org...

Nothing has really changed; the big boys both in and out of government have their share of the trade for their own reasons (Iran Contra) and the rest battle for supremacy..
Prohibition of Alcohol made allot of money for the few which are house hold names today..

With all this we now have a guesstimated 80,000 SWAT raids a year.. and a small percentage is wrong address or no drugs were found or even worse the perp did not live at the address for the last two years !... IMO one bad raid is to much...

I am sorry the police got shot at... I am glad the guy defended himself and a jury of his peers found him not guilty.

This 29 year old was raided and killed ... At least the cops did find 2 grams of pot... looks better in the report.. www.tampabay.com...

I am lucky I have never needed drugs or alcohol to get through my day.. Just not interested

a reply to: NthOther

In this case I'm surprised the guy wasn't shoot dead even though he put his gun down and doubly surprised that the judge has came down on his side.

Of course these two outcomes are good yet unfortunately I don't see it reducing no-knock raids nor the use of police force.

Two guys found innocent in a sea of other cases where the home owner is dead or guilty.

Seems like the Guy did what the law says he could do given the situation...The cops acted professionally by simply not shooting the crap out of everything and everyone in the house.

No-one was hurt that's the main thing.

Bravo jurors and it's great to see justice prevail... however, this so called landmark case may be not so great for future recipients of no-knock search warrants.

Tactical Response Units from here on will incorporate further strategies to nullify the likelihood of, or the effect of, a dweller opening fire on them.

Anyhow... smash down someones door pre-dawn in Texas, what were they expecting, coffee and donuts??

a reply to: NthOther

This is brilliant news. I'm glad that this private citizen, protecting his home and his rights, has been vindicated. I'm actually very glad.

originally posted by: Perhaps

Bravo jurors and it's great to see justice prevail...

That's what I'm taking from this whole thing. It's somewhat reassuring to know that there are some juries out there that still display some common sense... and common decency; that "they" haven't sucked our humanity out of us entirely... yet.

a reply to: NthOther

The problem isn't that juries don't have common sense but that about 90% of cases never make it to jury trial because of the arm twisting system of "pleas".

If every case went before a jury our justice system would be a lot different.

originally posted by: OrphanApology
a reply to: NthOther

The problem isn't that juries don't have common sense but that about 90% of cases never make it to jury trial because of the arm twisting system of "pleas".

If every case went before a jury our justice system would be a lot different.

Precisely. The state has beat it into our heads that "you can't fight the system" and "take the deal, you'll never win".

But, unfortunately, most of the time they're right. If they can't beat you honestly, they'll falsify documents, commit perjury, plant evidence, etc. I'm frankly amazed at the outcome of this case.

But it still makes me happy.

a reply to: NthOther

This is why one of the most simple way to begin correcting the "justice" system is to focus on pleas and force more cases through jury trials.

Juries, although made up of people are a far better option and would highlight the goodness in those around us. It's sad that more cases can't be tried by our peers. I think people would be surprised in the decisions of those around them.

^ My surprised face

Maybe they will think harder about no knock. Seriously that is so retarded anyways. There's no telling what will be behind door number #3. A Semi auto Barrett .50 at close range. Pork chop express.