5 HPD Officers Shot

[Guest Lobo]

And that assumes he got off every round after being shot himself.  I know my accuracy improves drastically after taking a few to the head. 

Edited April 5, 2019 by Lobo

[Texas_Rocks 346]

has there been any verification that the any or all the wounded officers were shot by Mr. Tuttle and not friendly fire as the guy making the videos suggested early on?     

The only thing we know for sure is that we’ll never get the full truth, but it’s almost a certainty that some of those injuries were due to errant friendly fire. They’re cops.

[Reagan1k 3016]

2 hours ago, hopkinsnhorns said:

Not that I'm aware of.  I believe in his early video, NewsNowHouston was looking at the bullet holes in the home and nearly all were consistent w/ 7.62 rounds (i.e. AR-15 style rifles) as entry or exit holes, but there were a couple or more exit holes w/ a larger diameter, which would be right for the revolver Tuttle was carrying.  I doubt he was responsible for all of the injuries sustained by officers because his revolver only held 5 or 6 rounds max.

Slight correction.  probably 5.56 holes not 7.62

7.62 and .357/.38 (if that's what he really had) would both be .30 cal. rounds.

Granted, I did not see that reporting, but officers carrying .308's into a raid like that would be highly unusual.

5.56 holes vs. .357 / .38 would probably be noticeable....but bullet type can influence the hole size as well - especially on exit.

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

46 minutes ago, Reagan1k said:

Slight correction.  probably 5.56 holes not 7.62
7.62 and .357/.38 (if that's what he really had) would both be .30 cal. rounds.
Granted, I did not see that reporting, but officers carrying .308's into a raid like that would be highly unusual.
5.56 holes vs. .357 / .38 would probably be noticeable....but bullet type can influence the hole size as well - especially on exit.

You’re right. Got my metric rounds confused. I don’t think AR10s are standard issue, even for SWAT. These were 5.56 holes.

Edited April 5, 2019 by hopkinsnhorns

[Anastasis 23393]

And they wonder why citizens feel the need to arm themselves with ARs. 

[Auto Driller 2504]

1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

And they wonder why citizens feel the need to arm themselves with ARs. 

Stop resisting!!

[Player 4575]

Not that I'm aware of.  I believe in his early video, NewsNowHouston was looking at the bullet holes in the home and nearly all were consistent w/ 7.62 rounds (i.e. AR-15 style rifles) as entry or exit holes, but there were a couple or more exit holes w/ a larger diameter, which would be right for the revolver Tuttle was carrying.  I doubt he was responsible for all of the injuries sustained by officers because his revolver only held 5 or 6 rounds max.

What revolver? I know during one of the first press conferences Art referenced a .357 revolver. But when they catalogued the weapons that were recovered, my recollection was that a .357 revolver was not listed.

Maybe this was subsequently clarified and I missed it, but it stuck out to me at the time as one more thing that HPD lied about.

[Texas_Rocks 346]

Has Art addressed the fact that the double tap in the video is not represented in the first incident report he authorized for release? Man, I honestly can’t think of anyone that lies as much as cops and politicians. Does anyone else see this as an irreversible clusterfuck?

[Lat22 3994]

I don’t think Channel 2 fully understands what those two shots were. If they did, they’d still be talking about it. 

[Brothahorn 10085]

I don’t think Channel 2 fully understands what those two shots were. If they did, they’d still be talking about it. 

Channel 2 is all about Dominque, Jennifer and Brita. The news is just fluff.

[Lat22 3994]

4 minutes ago, Brothahorn said:

 

Channel 2 is all about Dominque, Jennifer and Brita. The news is just fluff.

 

Have you seen Christine?

[gsoda3 3236]

i hope they all burn

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

https://www.click2houston.com/news/hpd-officers-workspaces-searched-after-new-warrants-unsealed-in-botched-drug-raid

2+ months later, HPD SIU/Homicide executes search warrant at the desk of the 2 officers alleged to have lied on the warrant application.  They seized computers and some flash drives.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/I-knew-the-officers-were-lying-Another-drug-13769519.php

Another one of their cases has been dismissed as well.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

“Those dudes retired, so we wiped their machines.” - Thin Blue IT Dept

How does that work with the FBI conducting their own investigation?

[Reagan1k 3016]

I think those searches were executed in February when the warrants were signed....the actual warrants are what has now being released / revealed by the courts to the public and press.....

I don't think it has taken them this long to request and execute the warrants.  The article isn't well written in that regard.....shocking I know.

[Texas_Rocks 346]

I don’t about Houston, but it seems to be going away nicely outside of the area.

[hayden_horn 11360]

so let's for a minute assume these homeowners survived the shootout and killed these cops.

they would be in jail or out on bond already charged for murder one, right?

why are the cops just cruising? this happened three fucking months ago now.

[Brisketexan 104561]

10 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

so let's for a minute assume these homeowners survived the shootout and killed these cops.

they would be in jail or out on bond already charged for murder one, right?

why are the cops just cruising? this happened three fucking months ago now.

Answered your own question, in bold.

[Dewey 3280]

I'm glad these cops are getting a fair shake at things. Art and his team are making sure no stone is left unturned, that everything is throughly examined. Such a far cry from their SOP.

The hypocrisy of this is on full display and hardly a word is said. Hpd, the city council, the mayor. Truely a shame and a disgrace.

[hopkinsnhorns 533]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Grieving-family-members-tour-Pecan-Park-home-as-13773103.php

Spoiler

Quote

 

Blood stains still mar the couch. Blue glass glimmers on the stove, beneath a broken timer riddled with bullet holes.

Empty sacks of dog food clutter the back room, next to a stray surfboard, dusty piles of clothes and sundry supplies from an unfinished life.

The lights are off, the windows broken.

This is 7815 Harding Street, three months later.

“We just need some answers,” said Cliff Tuttle, whose nephew died here on Jan. 28 in a botched drug raid. “You can’t grieve if you don’t know what happened.”

Weeks later, they still don’t. The autopsies still aren’t out. There’s no ballistics report. And police haven’t revealed any details about their investigation into the drug bust-gone-wrong.

With those and other questions still swirling, the families of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas returned on Tuesday to the scene of the gun battle that left their loved ones dead and five officers injured. It was the first time anyone had been inside since authorities scoured the home, and the first time the Tuttle family has spoken since the shootings.

• 

   
• 

The family and neighbors continue to push back on accusations by police that the couple was dealing drugs. Cliff Tuttle said he wants an apology from those who have maligned them.

“Tell us what went on, give us all the reports,” he said. “Let us sit down as a family and say, ‘This is what really happened. These are the people that did it.’ And we can make a decision and move forward.”

 

Nicholas’ brother, John Nicholas, emerged quietly after touring the home Tuesday.

“I’ve been way up there (in Louisiana) and now I’m down here, where it happened,” he said. “And it’s tough.”

'CLEAR HER NAME': Mother of woman killed in drug raid speaks out

The slain 59-year-old Navy veteran was born and raised in Houston, growing up in Denver Harbor and graduating from a nearby high school.

 

His family loved the outdoors, and Dennis grew into a “macho guy” interested in fishing and surfing, his uncle said.

“He joined the Navy,” Cliff said, “because of his love for the water.”

He received an honorable discharge, his uncle said, and married and had two children.

Dennis Tuttle went on to become a machinist, but eventually stopped working following a series of injuries. One of the worst was a car crash in which he suffered a major head injury after a pipe hit him.

 

Cliff said his nephew endured chronic pain but did not believe he was a drug dealer.

“I don’t think he was a drug dealer or user,” he said. “He lived in pain most of his adult life, from auto accidents and machine shop accidents.”

The pain took a toll, and eventually Dennis stopped going outside as much.

“He just went from being an outdoor person to an indoor one,” his uncle said.

 

Neighbors said he kept to himself, but vestiges of his past loves — a boat, a surfboard — still sit on the property, fading and out of use. He hung onto them, in part, in hopes his two children — or their children — might someday use them.

Dennis settled into the house on Harding at least three decades ago. His father, Robert Tuttle — who now lives outside of San Antonio — owned the place when Dennis moved in.

He hasn’t been back since his son’s death.

“Each person handles something like that differently,” Cliff said. “He’s not handling it well at all. That’s why I’m here.”

 

THE FALLOUT: Houston police officer in drug raid had previous allegations against him

Dennis met Nicholas in Houston about three decades ago when both were at the end of long-term relationships. They fell in love, and got married in a simple courthouse wedding in the late 1990s. For years, they lived quietly in the small Pecan Park home with their dogs.

“He was good to her — they got along good and everything,” her mother, Jo Ann Nicholas, told the Houston Chronicle last month. “I want them to clear her name.”

In early January, police reportedly received a call complaining of drug activity inside the home. Using that tip, narcotics officers decided to set up an undercover buy, allegedly sending a confidential informant into the house to buy heroin.

 

Officer Gerald Goines — who has since retired under investigation — used that supposed drug deal to justify a raid on the home. When undercover narcotics officers burst in the front door on Jan. 28, they shot dead a pit bull that lunged at them, setting off an exchange of gunfire. Tuttle and Nicholas were killed.

In the days that followed, though, investigators realized they couldn’t find the informant behind the alleged buy and began to suspect Goines may have lied about it all. The 34-year veteran officer and fellow narcotics Officer Steven Bryant were both relieved of duty and later retired under investigation. They could face criminal charges in connection with the failed raid, according to Chief Art Acevedo.

The FBI launched a civil rights investigation. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced its own probe into the shooting and is reviewing of more than 2,200 cases handled by Goines and Bryant.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Harris County DA’s office reviewing 1,400 cases in fallout from botched drug raid

 

As authorities pursue their investigations, attorneys for Tuttle and Nicholas are taking their own steps to learn what happened and explore possible legal action against the Houston Police Department.

Mike Doyle, who is representing Nicholas’ relatives, said he plans to file a motion to investigate — a move that would allow the court to give him the right to depose witnesses and ask for more evidence in the lead-up to a possible lawsuit.

He and Tuttle attorney Boyd Smith are still working to get the autopsies, requests for which the county has thus far stymied.

“Right now we are just trying to help this family get answers,” Smith said. “Their name was dragged through the mud with his.”

The grieving families have also hired independent investigators and forensics experts to perform their own review of the shooting.

On Tuesday, those experts assessed the bullet holes that pockmark the home, the bloodstains and spatters that cover two couches and other areas in the small house, and leftover debris strewn outside the home, the remnants from the raid and its aftermath.

“It’s just hard seeing all the blood and bullet holes,” Doyle said. “It brings it all home. It’s real people and a real house.”

 

keri.blakinger@chron.com

 

st.john.smith@chron.com

 

 

There's a video walk through of part of the home at the link.  Looks like HPD did a proper job tossing the home to make sure an unbiased forensic investigation would be damn near impossible.  I'd expect nothing less though from this corrupt agency.

Edited April 17, 2019 by hopkinsnhorns

[PilotsError 2281]

Harris County prosecutors said Friday they will seek to dismiss 27 active criminal cases due to concerns about the credibility of two former Houston police officers under investigation for their roles in a deadly January drug raid in Pecan Park.

Questions have been raised about whether the two officers, Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant, may have lied about some of the circumstances surrounding the botched raid on Jan. 28.

Goines and Bryant retired from the Houston Police Department under investigation weeks after the bust.

“Truthfulness is essential in a case that must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Friday in a statement. “We can’t vouch for these officers’ credibility.”

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM EXCLUSIVE: Aftermath of deadly Harding Street drug raid captured on dramatic cellphone video

The botched bust remains under investigation by the DA’s Office, the FBI, and the Houston Police Department.

Police burst into the home of at 7815 Harding Street looking for heroin, kicking off a gun battle that killed Dennis Tuttle and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas. Goines and three other officers were shot in the ill-fated raid, which netted only a small amount of marijuana and cocaine.

Goines came under scrutiny after investigators accused him of lying on the search warrant affidavit used to justify the raid. Family and friends have said the couple were not drug dealers.

The two officers were relieved of duty following the raid and later retired.

The DA’s office said it would file motions Friday seeking to dismiss all open cases in which Goines or Bryant were material witnesses who could be required to testify. Prosecutors had already dismissed several other pending cases.

“Police corruption erodes public trust and through methodical, deliberate and independent investigation, we will get to the truth,” Ogg said.

 

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-DA-seeks-dismissal-of-narcotics-13798554.php?fbclid=IwAR3ow-iEzlQ8FlO8Z2eEjeevNXUnd1SY3xDRRVc3CjZwuEmXmJX1bjQxj-k

[Lat22 3994]

16 hours ago, PilotsError said:

The two officers were relieved of duty following the raid and later retired.

That’s all fine and good, but why haven’t they been arrested?

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

Questions have been raised about whether the two officers, Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant, may have lied about some of the circumstances surrounding the botched raid on Jan. 28.
 
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-DA-seeks-dismissal-of-narcotics-13798554.php?fbclid=IwAR3ow-iEzlQ8FlO8Z2eEjeevNXUnd1SY3xDRRVc3CjZwuEmXmJX1bjQxj-k

Questions have been raised about whether Hitler may have not liked Jews

[Armybrat 40730]

On 4/16/2019 at 9:12 AM, Llano Estacado said:

“Those dudes retired, so we wiped their machines.” - Thin Blue IT Dept

How does that work with the FBI conducting their own investigation?

Or the IRS?

[Brothahorn 10085]

Have you seen Christine?

Looked her up...nice. She definitely fits their type.

[Rip76 4913]

Autopsy Report

https://www.click2houston.com/news/autopsy-reports-completed-for-victims-in-botched-harding-street-raid?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=kprc2

[Brisketexan 104561]

9 minutes ago, Rip76 said:

Autopsy Report

https://www.click2houston.com/news/autopsy-reports-completed-for-victims-in-botched-harding-street-raid?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=kprc2

I'm interested in the reports on the impact and trajectory of the shots.  Specifically the two fired after the bulk of the shootout was over, that you hear on the recording of the event.

Gee, what are the chances that the crime scene was totally altered/messed up so that we get no meaningful evidence or analysis that would show whether an incapacitated Tuttle was executed?  100%?  200%?

[Dewey 3280]

I didnt do any follow up, but walking by the TV earlier, channel 2 said that Art gave himself/ his department a self imposed deadline to release their findings. Whatever that day was, today? Yesterday? Nothing has been released.

[Brisketexan 104561]

18 minutes ago, Dewey said:

I didnt do any follow up, but walking by the TV earlier, channel 2 said that Art gave himself/ his department a self imposed deadline to release their findings. Whatever that day was, today? Yesterday? Nothing has been released.

[Dewey 3280]

That's a given, comical, sadly, to see just how much Art is going to sweep under the rug. The need for careful wording and limited details has pushed the deadline back to May 15th.

[PilotsError 2281]

Weird how Constant stopped posting on here when he did.

[PilotsError 2281]

Houston narcotics officers shot Dennis Tuttle at least eight times during the January 28 drug raid that killed him and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, at their home on Harding Street. The no-knock raid, based on allegations that Tuttle and Nicholas were selling heroin, found no heroin and no evidence of drug dealing. The officer who obtained the warrant, Gerald Goines, reported a "controlled buy" at the house that apparently never happened.

According to an autopsy report dated March 19, Tuttle suffered gunshot wounds in his head and neck, chest, left shoulder, left buttock (which was struck twice), left thigh, left forearm, left hand, right wrist, and right forearm (two graze wounds). The report says the chest injury "may represent a re-entrance wound of a fragmented bullet associated with one of the gunshot wounds of the upper extremities." The officers reported that they shot Tuttle after he fired at them with a .357 Magnum revolver in response to their armed invasion of his home, during which they killed a dog with a shotgun immediately after crashing through the door.

Another autopsy report, also dated March 19, says Nicholas was shot in the torso and right thigh. Police said they shot her after she moved toward the officer with the shotgun, who had collapsed on a couch after being shot by Tuttle. They said they believed she was trying to take away the shotgun. There is no video of the raid to corroborate that account. Both Tuttle, who was 59, and Nicholas, who was 58, were pronounced dead at 5:15 p.m., shortly after police broke into their home.

The only drugs that police found in the house were 18 grams of marijuana and 1.5 grams of cocaine. Those are also the only drugs detected by the toxicology tests described in the autopsy reports: THC and a THC metabolite in Tuttle's blood and benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, in Nicholas' blood. Notably, the tests found no traces of heroin, fentanyl, or other opioids.

Although Police Chief Art Acevedo has said the affidavit for the search warrant was falsified, he continues to defend the investigation that led to the raid, citing a January 8 call from an unnamed woman who reported that her daughter was using drugs at the house and described Tuttle and Nicholas as armed and dangerous drug dealers. Acevedo also said neighbors had thanked police for raiding the couple's home, which he said was locally notorious as a "drug house" and a "problem location."

Those claims are inconsistent with the accounts of neighbors interviewed by Houston news outlets. They said that Tuttle and Nicholas, who had lived in the house for two decades, were perfectly nice people and that they had never noticed any suspicious activity at the house.

KTRK, the ABC station in Houston, reported in February that the woman who called police on January 8 was Nicholas' mother, who was concerned about her own daughter's drug use. But that report is inconsistent with Acevedo's account and with what Nicholas' mother, Jo Ann Nicholas, has told reporters. "I want her name cleared," the grieving 84-year-old woman said in a March 25 interview with KTRK.

Four officers, including Goines, were injured by gunfire during the raid, but it is not clear where those rounds came from. It seems implausible that Tuttle, even if he fired all six rounds from the revolver, was able to hit his targets four times in the chaotic circumstances of the raid. Acevedo initially responded indignantly to the suggestion that officers were hit by "friendly fire," but that question is part of the Houston Police Department's ongoing investigation. This morning I asked the HPD whether the issue has been resolved but have not heard back yet.

After I requested copies of the autopsy reports on April 1, Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan claimed the documents were not subject to disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act. Citing the law's exception for information that "would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime," Ryan sought an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who I gather disagreed.

Update, May 7: HPD spokesman Kese Smith said the department is not releasing any information on the "friendly fire" issue until it completes its internal affairs and criminal investigations of the operation. He said those investigations should be completed by mid-May, at which point the department will report its findings to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, which is conducting its own investigation. The FBI is also looking into potential civil rights violations.

 

https://reason.com/2019/05/06/houston-police-shot-man-killed-in-fraudulent-heroin-raid-at-least-8-times/

[immortal13 4059]

There is no fucking way I will ever believe that woman ran across a room, through a barrage of gunfire to try and strip a wounded cop of his shotgun. There is just no fucking way that happened, and to expect the public to buy that story is simply absurd. 

And the double tap at the end of it all is disturbing to say the least. Cops do not have the authority to deal out a death sentence. I hope Acevedo and all the cops involved go down hard on this, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Edited May 10, 2019 by immortal13

[High Plains Drifter 10971]

This is like some Training Day shit going on.

 

[Longhornfan1024 1707]

Those neighbors who are going against Acevedo's story should probably move out of Houston before a falsified warrant application shows up with their name on it.

[huge 3788]

Im just going to leave this here

When the bright lights are on, maybe be on your best behavior

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Evidence-left-behind-after-botched-Pecan-Park-13842488.php

[Brisketexan 104561]

11 minutes ago, huge said:

Im just going to leave this here

When the bright lights are on, maybe be on your best behavior

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Evidence-left-behind-after-botched-Pecan-Park-13842488.php

If any of y'all are looking for something -- ANYTHING -- that makes the organized crime ring known as "HPD" look good.....keep looking.

Holy crap.  Bullets and teeth left behind.  A shirt will bullet holes, but no blood, marked as evidence and left there?  "Drug baggies" stashed under the sofa (you know, right where the cops made entry).  Throwdowns that wounded cops ditched so they wouldn't have them on them when they went to the hospital?  WTF?  Seems like there was effectively NO investigation of the scene.  Just a determination that the bad guys shot at the cops, got what they deserved, and case closed.

This case gets worse every time new info comes out.  And it ain't ever going to get any better.

[bernorange 8348]

It's almost as if there is a huge conflict of interest in letting the police investigate the police.

[Brisketexan 104561]

2 minutes ago, bernorange said:

It's almost as if there is a huge conflict of interest in letting the police investigate the police.

imgur

[Lat22 3994]

I know that the .357 was never inventoried, but I hadn't considered the thought that Tuttle may never have even fired on the jackbooted cops. Wow.

 

[High Plains Drifter 10971]

So, in addition to killing to people, and their dog, the cops also completely trash the house.

 

[High Plains Drifter 10971]

18 minutes ago, Lat22 said:

I know that the .357 was never inventoried, but I hadn't considered the thought that Tuttle may never have even fired on the jackbooted cops. Wow.

 

 

That should be the first thing that you should consider in these types of situations.

[PilotsError 2281]

Straight up execution with a (intentional?) sloppy investigation.

 

Evidence left behind after botched Pecan Park drug raid raises new questions about shootings

 

Just inside the front door, two teeth sit in a dried puddle of blood. Embedded in the walls and floor are bullets that were never removed.

In the dining room, a shot-up man’s shirt lies in a heap on the floor, the evidence tag still attached. Blood spatter speckles the walls, sofas and stray boxes. Nearly empty drug baggies clutter the floor.

A four-day independent forensics review at 7815 Harding Street found a cache of evidence left behind by the city’s crime scene teams after a botched drug raid at the home left dead a couple suspected of selling drugs.

Hired by the relatives of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle, the new forensics team found no signs the pair fired shots at police — and plenty of signs that previous investigators overlooked dozens of pieces of potential evidence in what one expert called a “sloppy” investigation.

“It doesn’t appear that they took the basic steps to confirm and collect the physical evidence to know whether police were telling the truth,” said attorney Mike Doyle, who is representing the Nicholas family. “That’s the whole point of forensic scene documentation. That’s the basic check on people just making stuff up.”

Inconsistencies

According to the Houston Police Department’s account, undercover narcotics officers burst in the front door of the Pecan Park home on Jan. 28 and opened fire as soon as a pit bull lunged at them. Hearing the gunshot, Tuttle came running out from the back of the house and started shooting at the officers with a .357 revolver, striking the case agent who’d been the first man through the door.

The wounded lawman fell on the couch near Nicholas, who allegedly made a move for his weapon. A back-up officer opened fire and killed the 58-year-old.

But the shoot-out continued, and in the end, Tuttle and Nicholas were killed and five officers injured — including four who were shot. Police maintain it was not friendly fire.

Though the botched raid was intended to target heroin dealers, authorities said they only turned up 18 grams of marijuana and 1.5 grams of cocaine — user-level amounts. And the first man through the door, case agent Gerald Goines, later retired under investigation amid accusations that he’d lied on the search warrant used to justify the raid.

Houston police, the FBI and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office launched separate investigations into the matter, and prosecutors are exploring the possibility of criminal charges against one or more of the officers involved.

But now, the four-day review by independent forensic expert Mike Maloney, a retired supervisory special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is raising additional new questions about the deadly bust.

 

Though police said they started shooting when the dog lunged as they came through the door, Maloney’s forensics team found that the dog was shot and killed at the edge of the dining room, 15 feet from the front door. Authorities never picked up the shotgun shell when they collected evidence.

And police said that Tuttle started firing at them, but Maloney’s team did not find clear evidence of that.

“The initial bullet trajectories appear to be somewhat contradictory,” said Louisiana-based attorney Chuck Bourque, who is also representing the Nicholas family. “We see no evidence that anybody inside the house was firing toward the door.”

Some of the bullet holes outside the house appeared at least a foot from the door, a fact that Doyle flagged as troubling.

“You can’t see into the house from there,” he said, “you’re firing into the house through a wall.”

The attorneys for the slain couple’s families invited the Texas Rangers and the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences to attend the re-investigation, but both declined.

Houston police spokesman Victor Senties declined to comment on the team’s findings, citing the ongoing investigation. Chief Art Acevedo could not be reached Monday for comment.

Uncollected evidence

For three months after the raid, the home sat abandoned, windows boarded up and flowers in the front yard.

When the Tuttle and Nicholas families finally went inside for the first time in mid-April, what they found was a mess. Bullet holes pierced a timer above the stove, and dog food bags, soda cans and clothes littered the house.

But, it appears, it wasn’t until Maloney and his team went in on Friday that anyone systematically went through everything. Maloney’s investigators tested every dark stain and speckle for blood, both human and animal. They dug bullets out of the walls, and measured the holes left behind. They mapped out trajectories, and searched for shrapnel.

“Our goal is through the bloodstain and bullet trajectory testing to be able to tell where everyone was standing when the shots were fired,” he said.

They won’t have their final determination on that until more testing comes back, but in the course of their weekend review, Maloney’s team found a trove of uncollected evidence, an apparent oversight the Houston Forensic Science Center president Dr. Peter Stout chalked up to the mayhem of an active scene.

“Crime scenes are often chaotic,” he said Monday, stressing that his teams took hundreds of photos and collected hours of video during multiple visits to the home. “There is always the risk that some evidence will not be found or that items that seem unimportant today become significant tomorrow.”

Among that evidence was nearly a dozen .223- and .45-caliber bullets Maloney and Doyle believe came from police guns. Typically, Tuttle kept four of the guns he owned locked up in a bedroom safe as family heirlooms, Doyle said.

He usually kept a loaded .357 Magnum by his bedside. That was the weapon police initially said he fired in the shoot-out, though it’s not clear what happened to the gun afterward. It was not cataloged in the only search warrant return that has been publicly released.

Asking questions

Maloney’s team found no indication that any of the guns Tuttle owned were fired toward the front of the house at incoming police. The Houston Police Department has not released the results of any ballistics testing and has not specified which guns were fired in the exchange.

In the puddle where Tuttle died after he was shot at least eight times, Maloney found what appear to be two human teeth. An autopsy report showed he’d been shot in the jaw.

Tossed aside in a pile of clothes in the dining room, Maloney and his team found a man’s shirt with bullet holes and official evidence markers. It wasn’t bloody, so there’s no reason to believe Tuttle was wearing it at the time. But, for reasons that are unclear, authorities tagged it as evidence and left it behind at the scene.

Also left at the scene were powder-coated straws and about a dozen tiny plastic baggies with white residue inside, underneath debris by the living room sofa. Most were of the size that could be used to hold a gram of cocaine, a user-level amount.

Though the Houston Forensic Science Center — the organization primarily responsible for processing scenes like the Harding Street home — removed evidence and took dozens of photographs of the house, experts and the slain couple’s attorneys both were baffled by the amount of material left behind.

“I can’t explain why all that was left — that sounds like something only the Houston Police Department and investigators can answer,” said former Houston Police Chief Charles A. McClelland. “If that evidence is connected to that shooting scene, I’d certainly be asking questions.”

Sam Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, called it “sloppy” and said the uncollected evidence raises other questions.

“How many people have been convicted over the years as a result of sloppy investigations which failed to collect evidence that was there that would have exonerated the suspect?” he said. “If they do it in this kind of a homicide case, what do they do in other kinds of investigations?”

keri.blakinger@chron.com

st.john.smith@chron.com

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Evidence-left-behind-after-botched-Pecan-Park-13842488.php?fbclid=IwAR2RHK1QiL7JjKCgPyu3udyoPTUhVSzDAgMJIXTSRhlXpkyIFHVaUvosccI

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

4 officers were shot.  I don't really believe that two people who didn't expect the officers and presumably didn't have guns just sitting right there with them were able to get four of them, but I also don't really believe 4 officers would be hit by friendly fire and no shots came from the couple.  Neither side's story really passes the smell test to me.

[Huckleberry 32695]

3 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

4 officers were shot.  I don't really believe that two people who didn't expect the officers and presumably didn't have guns just sitting right there with them were able to get four of them, but I also don't really believe 4 officers would be hit by friendly fire and no shots came from the couple.  Neither side's story really passes the smell test to me.

I tend to agree with this, but the independent forensics team did mention that the locations of some bullet holes indicate that officers on the outside were firing blindly into the home without being able to see their targets.

[PilotsError 2281]

7 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

4 officers were shot.  

 

Justifiably, yes?

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

Just now, PilotsError said:

 

Justifiably, yes?

i'm asking the question of 'by whom.'

[Updawg 2261]

Looking like themselves

[Guest Lobo]

8 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

I tend to agree with this, but the independent forensics team did mention that the locations of some bullet holes indicate that officers on the outside were firing blindly into the home without being able to see their targets.

Which is always a great idea.  Could be innocent people, could be children, could be fellow officers.  Best to open rapid fire, ask questions later, have both fellow officers and IA quash those questions, rewrite the questions, stage the answers, edit the answers, give the questions to the D.A. ahead of time, rewrite the answers again, and then ask questions one more time but this time in Aramaic. 

[bernorange 8348]

Maybe they just wanted to prove to themselves that they could hit the broad side of a barn from one foot away.