On 15 January, someone loaned Police Chief Louis Ross a bullet resistant vest. After donning the vest, Chief Ross raided a home in Sentinel, Oklahoma. Homeowner Dallas Horton shot Ross three times in the chest, and once in the arm. The vest stopped three of the bullets. Horton wasn’t charged for the shooting. There are many details about this case that have not been widely reported . . .
1. Police Chief Ross is the police force in Sentinel. It is a one man force; he ‘s on call 24/7. So when someone called-in a bomb threat to SPD at 4am on the morning of the shooting, Chief Ross was called out of his home for the raid.
2. The police did not have a warrant.
3. The bomb threat did not originate from the house; the person who called the police simply said that he was Dallas Horton.
It was, essentially, a crude “swatting” that the police should have figured out.
No bombs, explosives, or bomb making materials were found, even though UPI wrote that a device was allegedly found. From upi.com:
Law enforcement officials allegedly found an explosive device at Horton’s home. Horton and his wife were arrested.
I have not found any other source that corroborated this allegation. The fact that no “bomb making materials” were found probably has more to do with the peace officers integrity than anything else.
I have seen everything from fireworks and lengths of galvanized and PVC pipe, and reloading supplies, characterized as “bomb making materials”. It is hard to find a household in rural America that does *not* have “bomb making materials* if the police are inclined to find them.
Neither Dallas nor his wife Esther Marie Horton were arrested.
The real story is that this was a swatting. There are three victims of this swatting incident. Dallas Horton and his wife Esther Marie have had their lives turned upside down, came close to being killed, and have been defamed around the world. Chief Ross was wounded in the arm. He came close to being killed as well.
Perhaps the bomb hoaxer/swatter will be found and prosecuted. Dallas and Esther Marie Horton will not be. Knowing a bit about small town politics, I do not see Chief Ross losing his job either.
This is another case in a series where homeowners have shot police and have been found to have been justified in doing so. The last one was in Texas, where a Grand Jury “no billed” Henry McGee, who killed a deputy in Burleson County.
A resident of Sentinel summed it up well. From ksmb.com:
“This is country, this ain’t Oklahoma City,” Jimmy Rhoades told KFOR. “You’re taught from a young age that if somebody comes into your house to shoot.”
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch
I’ll need some popcorn for this one.
Woah! PCP pipe?
Lima Oscar Lima…..who needs PVC when PCP is more better?
Perhaps the bomb hoaxer/swatter will be found and prosecuted.
Any SWATter should face, at the minimum, criminal endangerment charges, followed by a juicy civil suit. Why is there no will to investigate these calls? What about the caller who reported John Crawford?
Unfortunately, SWAT teams hate to stand around. They are trained to bust in to houses and start shooting. They can’t wait for some real time “action.” This is part of the problem.
The founders said (paraphrasing) “We don’t want a standing army because they don’t like to stand around.”
Same problem for SWAT teams.
Part of it may not be a lack of will (at least among LE),
but a lack in ability. Though it is harder to make an
anonymous call these days it’s not impossible. Also, if
the call was made to a non emergency line (aka outside
the 911 system) there’s no guarantee that you’d even
have a return number let alone instant tracking on the
phone line.
Furthermore consider that if someone does purposely
SWAT someone else, the last thing they want is any link
back to them. Not only would LE be very upset but the
person SWATted could consider the caller an active threat
to their person and family and may want to be a little more
proactive in removing said threat.
Had the “swatter” pulled this on a Federal or State gov politician, he/she would have already been found…I promise. The gov doesn’t care because it didn’t happen to one of their own, but a regular Joe instead.
@Bob…Agreed, as for swat standing around, its like when a kid pulls the fire alarm at school. Its hard to take the fire chief seriously when he acts all pi$$ed off that they had to roll the fire trucks on a prank, when truth is riding the red truck is what gets him up each morning.
They should be prosecuted. BUT we need to end no knock raids unless it is a hostage situation.
In a town that small, you would think the police chief would know practically everyone by their first name. If he/she doesn’t, he/she needs to spend some time walking the beat, per se. But, I am suspicious. A forced entry into a house with no backup is insane no matter the circumstances. He could have waited for the Sheriffs office. A knock on the door is always an option, or even better, a phone call ought to work too. Geez.
I’m guessing that there is some history between all the players that goes back awhile
A forced entry into a house with no backup is insane
He wasn’t alone. According to the story, “the chief and deputies went to the home…”
They were there according to the report but no return fire from the deputies. Uh… that’s not the kind of back up I would be comfortable with.
It’s a good thing they didn’t shoot Horton and his wife but was there no contingency in the event that they encountered armed resistance? Strange.
I first saw this story on a liberal Facebook page that is so far left I’m still not sure it isn’t satire, anyway their assumption is, wait for it….. racism, yep.
Found other details from: BearingArms(dot)com
http://bearingarms.com/oklahoma-police-chief-shot-apparent-swatting-raid-homeowner-wont-charged/
We’re very thankful that Dallas Horton is a good shot and kept all his shots center mass where Chief Ross’s bullet-resistant vest was able to absorb the majority of the damage from Horton’s bullets
The first story cited notes, “some type of explosive device” was found in the home. This has not been substantiated in later reporting, suggesting that either the media account was erroneous. It is also possible that Horton, an avid shooter according to his Facebook page, owned some sort of binary explosive targets, such as Tannerite, which is perfectly legal to own.
Does anyone else smell a anti-2a SWATTER did this against the home/gun owner?
Anti 2A, anti survivalist swatter, or some kid latched on to anti 2A propaganda looking for a ‘thrill’ was my first thought.
Cleaning supplies = bomb making materials.
Do you have gasoline for your lawn mower, laundry detergent, and anything styrofoam? Criminal. 🙂
“Does anyone else smell a anti-2a SWATTER did this against the home/gun owner?”
An anti-2A in small town Oklahoma is going to be a very busy person indeed…
Good. Let’s see more of this. This and a push back from the le on the ground will be the only way the unwarranted and no knock bs will stop. Granted some le love those shady actions but I’m sure some are getting tired of playing jack boot and risking valid return fire. If a man or woman can’t have their home considered a castle then there will never be a return of liberty.
Sounds like the chief has watched too many Ah-nuld movies. A one man warrentless raid based on an anonymous phone call? In a town of 900?
It would have been a real tragedy if anyone had died. Swatting is something that needs to be addressed very harshly.
If the nsa and all the other alphabet agencies are indeed monitoring us 24/7 somebody out there knows who made the call.
Those propane cylinders you use for soldering can be considered explosive devices, along with any timers, batteries, pipes, bag ‘o nails, and now pressure cookers.
Yep, god forbid they find the keg of powder you use for reloading, or the thousands of rounds you have stockpiled. Suddenly the swatter has you labeled a terrorist.
I visited the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial a few years back and one small display depicted a small room, say the size of an out house, that had a Bible, a few thousand rounds of ammo, and semi auto rifle of some sort, don’t remember, but it was labeled as a typical terrorist hide out, or words to that affect.
It’s pretty sad that that is the government’s view of shooters and collectors because the majority of us would fit that profile.
Looks like I’m one item short of a terrorist!
I’m glad chief Ross made it out alive. He had the honesty to basically admit it was his fault (although he didn’t call the bomb threat, he did break into the house).
Fortunate that Horton didn’t follow – 2 to the chest and 1 to the brain.
The chief must have watched one too many episodes of Banshee lol
This story boggles my mind. One of my biggest fears is being swatted or having a “wrong address raid” on my house. Thank god the homeowner had judicious marksmanship, and was not injured by the police officer. Also, that homeowners should thank his lucky stars that there was no warrent, otherwise, I’m sure he’d be behind bars. I hope i’d be so fortunate in the same case….and able to pay the lawyer costs!
They are calling this a “racist” attack on the police because the officer was African American and the guy who shot him has made some less than politically correct posts on facebook in the past. IMO it had nothing to do with race, it was sloppy police work that nearly cost an officer his life. Take heed LEO’s everywhere, force can be met with force when you unlawfully enter a residence as in this case and the law will increasingly be on the side of the home owner. Make sure your warrants are valid, make sure you HAVE a warrant (did not in this case), make sure you have the right house, make sure you have no solution to the problem BUT to make entry, you better make sure if your busting down someones door in the middle of the night that it is your last resort, not your first.
I have no tolerance for the racist that comment here from time to time. But the alledged racist in this case was in his own house, not bothering anyone when the law attacked him. Horton was not sneaking around the chiefs property looking to burn a cross or worse.
You’re allowed to be an aszhole in your own home and nobody has the right to say otherwise so long as you’re not hurting anyone else.
Did Hortons racist leanings figure into the reason he was swatted?
I have seen comments that he was “known” to law enforcement for what that is worth.
Nobody is clean, and in a small town I wouldn’t doubt that the SINGLE LEO officer would know at least somebody. That might also factor into his willingness to no-knock the guy as well.
What a MAROON…
Two things:
Any no-knock raid should require a warrant issued only after a hearing in which a public defender is present to make arguments against it, and signed not by just one judge but two.
Any swat-ing call should carry a penalty equal to the maximum for the crime alleged by the swat-er.
Wow, this is bad on so many levels. Why wouldn’t Ross get an arrest warrant, besides the total lack of probable cause. Why did he enter the home without a warrant, there was no exemption to needing a warrant? What was his plan at 4am, kick the door and run in there to arrest someone without a warrant? At this point, if I were Ross, I’d be worried about a state AG charging him. I’d be worried about the inevitable civil suit.
Swatted:
OSBI originally reported that Ross and Washita County sheriff’s deputies had located the caller in his home in the 200 block of S 4. However, OSBI later said that a forensic computer analyst examined phones taken from the home, and the call “was not made from phones in the possession of those who live inside the home nor any other phones inside the residence at 205 S 4th in Sentinel.”
newsok.com/man-arrested-in-connection-with-sentinel-bomb-threat/article/5386315
I am somewhat surprised that someone would anti 2nd amendment types – are there any in OK?
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