Jamar, you might remember, is a Huntsville, Alabama man who suffers from severe gout, has survived two heart attacks, has a pacemaker, and is hard of hearing. He miraculously survived a botched SWAT raid on his home in 2006, in which police broke down his door, broke open his bedroom door, then opened fire on him when he mistook them for criminal intruders, and met them with a gun. The raid put him in intensive care for two weeks, and nearly killed him. Federal and state officials were actually looking for Jamar’s nephew, who lived a few houses down. The nephew was so obviously dangerous, police eventually arrested him in his front yard, without incident, when he came out to watch them drive his uncle away in an ambulance. The police insisted the raid went exactly as planned, and subsequent investigations exonerated everyone involved.

The police reports say Jamar met them with “aggressive resistance,” which they “neutralized” by shooting him twice in the chest, once in the groin, and once in the foot. Family members described Jamar as a semi-invalid who “couldn’t get up to make himself a ham sandwich.”

Jamar is now suing. But he’s having some difficulty with his lawsuit. Not because it lacks merit, but because the city of Huntsville is refusing to turn over any documents related to the case, including those associated with the internal investigation. The city claims the documents are “too sensitive” for public consumption, and that the city is protected by an “executive privilege” claim in Alabama’s state constitution.

A judge will rule on the matter later this week.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 3:12 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.