UpDate On Officer Timothy Carson Charged with Bank Robbery

A Minneapolis police officer charged with bank robbery lived in the Center Point area as a child.

Timothy Edward Carson, 28, was charged Jan. 7 in federal court with robbing a bank in Apple Valley, Minn., and could be connected to up to a dozen Twin Cities robberies in late December and early January, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Center Point-Urbana Superintendent Alan Marshall confirmed Carson attended district schools for the second through ninth grades, before moving away. Efforts to contact Carson’s parents weren’t successful Monday.

Carson was charged after an Apple Valley officer stopped his car the morning of Jan. 6 because it lacked a front license plate. The traffic stop occurred about three miles from a bank that was robbed later that morning.

The officer released Carson after he showed his police identification, but he noticed Carson’s car near the bank while responding to the robbery report about an hour later. Carson was about an hour late for that day’s shift, which began minutes before the robbery.

A police detective and an FBI agent interviewed Carson that evening.

Carson at first denied involvement, but then admitted his role, leading them to clothing used in the robbery, discarded in a trash can outside police headquarters.

Carson began work as a Minneapolis officer in January 2007, according to the Star Tribune. He has been a member of the department’s SWAT unit for nearly two years.

After Carson’s arrest, Minneapolis police named him as a suspect in robberies at convenience stores, a pharmacy, a coffee shop, and at least one other bank in Minneapolis and its suburbs.
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Former Officer Mark McCombs Sentenced for Stealing SWAT Weapons

A former suburban Cleveland police officer convicted of stealing machine guns, night-vision goggles and a silencer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and now faces more time behind bars.

Parma police officer Mark McCombs apologized in Cuyhaoga County Common Pleas court before the sentencing for tampering with evidence and theft in office.

McCombs is awaiting sentencing in federal court where he faces at least 41 months in prison for having two machine guns and a silencer that were stolen from the police department's SWAT team.

McCombs was a member of the SWAT unit until he was fired in 2007.

He was fired after being accused of forcing a woman to have sex in a patrol car. A jury later found him not guilty of rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition.
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SWAT Officer Timothy Carson Arrested for Bank Robbery

A Minneapolis police SWAT team member was arrested Thursday in a string of robberies in suburban Dakota County.

Officer Timothy Carson, 28, a Minneapolis police SWAT team member has been charged with bank robbery. The officer, from Rosemount, Minn. was ordered held without bail after a federal court hearing Thursday. Carson is accused of robbing a Wells Fargo bank in suburban Apple Valley on Wednesday, when $4,580 was taken.

Police Chief Tim Dolan said Thursday that officers in his department helped break the case, and the FBI was investigating.

Dolan told reporters that he was shocked by the arrest, and that his department spends a tremendous amount of resources trying to recruit the best people to the force.

"We do have a few that fail," he conceded. "It does tarnish the badge, the badge of the Minneapolis Police Department."

The officer was not immediately charged and authorities did not immediately say which specific robberies they believe he committed. FBI spokesman E.K. Wilson said he couldn't comment.

Officer Timothy Edward Carson was initially booked into the Dakota County Jail, but officials said he was no longer there late Thursday morning and is the custody of the U.S. Marshal's Service.

The 28-year-old officer had been assigned to the 3rd Precinct of south Minneapolis.

"It's disgusting," said John Delmonico, president of the Minneapolis Police Federation. "I don't even know what words I could use ... The actions of this guy have a bad reflection on every Minneapolis cop today. For all the cops who go out and do a good job every day, it's pathetic."

Delmonico said the union will do nothing to help the accused officer.

"Whatever they do to this guy, in my opinion, won't be enough," he said.

Lt Steven Hanners Charged with Theft

The Eufaula Police Department arrested and charged one of their own on Monday. According to EPD Chief Jim West, Lt. Steven Hanners, who joined the force in 1998, has been charged with a Class B felony for theft of property.

West said the investigation continues and additional charges could be filed. “We are currently examining all of Lt. Hanners’ case files and paperwork.”

According to West, Hanners has been the Eufaula Police Department supervisor over Special Operations and the SWAT team.

“The public trusts us and we are going to be worthy of that trust. We will be spotless” West said. “This must not taint the reputation of other officers or the department.”

Eufaula Mayor Jay Jaxon echoed those sentiments. “I hate that this has happened. I see that the chief was on top of this and has acted on his concerns.”

Officers Kevin Fujioka & Shayne Souza Arrested

Two Honolulu law enforcers in Las Vegas to play in a softball tournament for police and firefighters were arrested on marijuana charges after leading authorities on a short chase.

Clark County spokeswoman Stacey Welling said officers Kevin Fujioka, 37, and Shayne Souza, 47, were arrested Saturday night near Desert Breeze Park, about six miles west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Scott Wilson, a 38-year-old social worker from Honolulu, also was arrested, Welling said Monday.

Park police approached the men in a white van because it was parked sideways across two spots in the parking lot, Welling said. As officers approached, the van drove off.

After a short pursuit, Souza and Fujioka got out of the van and ran from police, authorities said. Welling said officers pepper-sprayed Souza when he resisted arrest.

All three men were charged with marijuana possession, Welling said. Fujioka also was charged with driving under the influence of a narcotic, and Souza was charged with drug paraphernalia possession, resisting a police officer and obstruction of justice. Wilson was charged with having an open alcohol container in a vehicle, Welling said.

Michelle Yu, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department, confirmed that the agency has two officers with the same names as Fujioka and Souza, but she said the department had not heard about the arrests and could not immediately comment.

Yu said Fujioka is a patrol officer who has worked at the department 13 years, while Souza is a SWAT officer who has been with the department 20 years.

Welling said the men identified themselves as police officers from the Hawaii city.

Tom Wagner, president of the Nevada Police Athletic Federation, said the arrests happened during a men's softball tournament that was part of the 2009 Nevada Police & Fire Games. The five-day event of various sports and games involves about 2,000 police and firefighters from across the country, Wagner said.

He called the arrests "shocking" and said it's possible that the players and their team would not be invited to return to the games.

"It's unfortunate but we definitely are going to be speaking to that coach and that police department and getting the story and deciding what our action will be as a federation," Wagner said.

SWAT Tactics Examined after Oakland Cop Killings

Law enforcement experts call residential entryways the "fatal funnel" _and that is where two Oakland police officers met death when they confronted a barricaded gunman, who allegedly had already killed two other officers hours earlier. The SWAT team's decision to rush an apartment rather than wait out an armed man is expected to be the subject of Special Weapons and Tactics training classes across the country, experts said.

And the Oakland Police Department said Friday that its internal investigation of the March 21 killings will include a review by outside SWAT experts.

It was the deadliest incident involving California officers since 1970.

Lawyers, police trainers and others expect the examination to determine whether police followed departmental guidelines and whether they made tactical or procedural mistakes.

Police say parolee Lovelle Mixon shot motorcycle patrolmen Mark Dunakin and John Hege with a handgun during a traffic stop, then later killed SWAT team members Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai with an assault weapon. Another SWAT officer was injured, and Mixon was killed.

Police have not said why Dunakin and Hege stopped Mixon. The two patrolmen were killed without drawing their own weapons.

After that shooting, investigators said, Mixon fled a few blocks away to a sister's apartment. An anonymous tip exposed Mixon's hiding place- and about two hours after the traffic stop the SWAT team stormed through the apartment's front door, detonating flash-bang devices.

Much of the focus outside the Oakland department has been on the SWAT team because the highly trained officers were killed while in pursuit of someone they believed already had gunned down two of their colleagues.

The department's written guidelines for resolving such situations begins with "containment" but also includes "breach and entry of objective site" among 10 options.

"In any event, a resolution will be accomplished with the utmost consideration given to the safety of citizens, police personnel and all involved parties," states the department's general orders for SWAT operations.

Police officials have said the SWAT team entered the apartment to clear and search it, but precisely what prompted their decision is unclear.

The department turned down requests to interview a SWAT team commander and Police Chief Howard Jordan.

"The whole incident is still under investigation and OPD is not releasing any details or reports," police spokesman Jeff Thomason said in an April 2 e-mail. "This is to protect the integrity of the investigation until it can be completed."

Law enforcement experts said that without knowing more about the circumstances, it is difficult to second-guess the officers' actions.

Some speculated that the SWAT team decided to enter the apartment because they feared waiting for the gunman to give up could result in more violence and harm to building occupants.

They said the officers faced one of the most dangerous scenarios in law enforcement: a gunman holed up in a residence and presumably training his sights on the entryway.

"I don't see where it was necessarily prudent for the officers to go in when they went in," said Michael Lyman, a criminal justice professor at Columbia College in Missouri, who based his comments on publicly available information. "Unless there is compelling need to go through that fatal funnel, don't do it."

Ed Nowicki, executive director of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association based in Twin Lakes, Wis., said the people inside the building always have the advantage over those outside, simply because they have more knowledge.

"It's their turf, not your turf," he said.

Nowicki said SWAT officers should avoid storming a residence unless there are strong signals that a gunman is on the verge of more violence.

"You go in pretty much as a last resort," Nowicki said. "And if you don't have to, you don't. If you can wait them out, you wait them out."

Experts widely agree that the Oakland police shootings will be one of the most widely studied cases in law enforcement training.

It will certainly alter SWAT training in some way, said Robert Stresak, a spokesman for the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

"It is a watershed law enforcement moment," Stresak said. "Obviously, when four heroes are killed, something didn't go right."

SWAT Officer Robert Booth Kicks Handcuffed Suspect Maybe Charged

SPOKANE, Wash.

Investigators believe a Spokane police officer who has been accused of kicking a handcuffed man in the face should be charged with a misdemeanor.

According to a police investigation release late Friday, detectives are recommending a fourth-degree assault charge against 37-year-old Officer Robert M. Booth. He has been on the force since 1994 and is a member of the city's SWAT team.

Booth has denied accusations that he kicked 22-year-old John Luna on Sept. 5 after he pursued and captured Luna for investigation of car theft. Three other officers, however, told investigators they saw the officer kick Luna while he lay handcuffed on the ground. One says he heard Boothe tell Luna, "You're lucky that's all you got."

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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesmanreview.com

SWAT Officer Guillermo Cantu Arrested for Drunk Driving

A San Antonio S.W.A.T. Officer was arrested this weekend for driving drunk while in his unmarked police car. Austin police stopped the 42 year old veteran police officer who was in town for a SWAT conference.

Officer Guillermo Cantu is an 18-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department and a member of the Special Operations Unit. (Who should have known better. I’m sure he has arrested others for the same crime.)

Gabe Trevino, a spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department said, “The arresting officer felt he was intoxicated. While at the conference, Officer Cantu was involved with drinking. He then got into the city vehicle that he was assigned to at the conference and got stopped.”

(Maybe he should have let one of the other two officers in the car with him drive? Or where they drunk too?)

San Antonio Police Department officials refused to comment about the details of Cantu's D.W.I. arrest, but said they are conducting their own investigation.

"If he was found to be guilty, then, of course, we'll address that appropriately," Trevino said.

Officer Cantu bonded out of jail in Austin. He's been placed on administrative duty, pending completion of the investigation.

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Okay I found out from another person that this officer had recently lost his mother due to cancer. I do feel for him. Death is not a nice thing and is very hard to deal with. Still, you can’t drive drunk...that is the law. Don’t you think that maybe some of the other people that he has stopped for the same thing, might have had an good excuse too? There is no excuse for drunk driving. He should have known better since he is supposed to be a role model for society.

I don’t think he needs to lose his job for this either...maybe make him go around lecturing to others about drunk driving and what he will now have to go through because he made the wrong choice.