TheAgitator.com
Back to Chesapeake
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Supporters of Ryan Frederick play to rally on Feb. 23 outside the Chesapeake Correctional Center where he’s being held.
There’s also now a fund for his legal defense, though you have to wade through some MySpace crap to get to it. Looks like they have about $1,000 so far.
Also, something raised on a local libertarian blog that I hadn’t noticed:
Most damningly, the inventory reports that 3 shell casing were recovered, 2 .380 ACP casings and one .223 casing. Frederick had a .380 pistol, but no AR-15 or other rifle to account for the .223. Police often carry such rifles in SWAT type actions.
The police have made no statement admitting that one of their officers fired a shot, nor has any explanation for that rifle casing been offered. It would be no surprise, and no indication of additional wrongdoing, if one of the officers fired his weapon in the course of the incident, so why let these weeks go by with that casing unexplained? The result is that something that might well be entirely reasonable takes a on sinister appearance. Further, posts on the Virginian Pilot blogs pointing out that irregularity have been quickly removed, adding to the appearance of a cover-up and eroding our trust in the Pilot as well.
If there is nothing wrong about that .223 round, then doggedly refusing to address its existence creates the impression that there is. Who fired that shot, and where did it go?
Odd that the Pilot would remove those posts. I think the paper’s coverage thus far has been pretty good.
Well if the cops were baseball players it would be all over.There would be secret testimony,no right to discloser,no cross examination by defense,no right to objection and hearsay would be admitted all to get a perjury charge because the underling charges are not illegal.How did we get to a point where a guy loses his rights for possibly taking a drug,yet yet cops don’t have to explain themselves in a capital case.
I don’t know how many “posts” (plural) it’s being alleged that the Pilot has supposedly removed, but this comment made that exact point about the .223 casing back on January 25, these two mentioned it on February 11 (admittedly, after the blog post you quote) and none of them have disappeared.
And incidentally, two of those comments I just linked to were posted by the same guy who writes that blog.
That first link doesn’t seem to have worked just right. Here is the page that post is on.
Are we talking about the same Pilot here? The first coverage I saw struck me as a hit piece on Frederick. On my blog, I took the time to highlight all of the crap that they did in their first coverage of the story to make the poor guy look more like a hardened cop killer than the sort of decent guy that all of his associates are saying that he really is. Stuff like this is why I have come to regard the mainstream media as being as fundamentally a part of the problem as anything in the government itself.
When the mainstream media isn’t creating controversies out of whole cloth, it tends to suppress them. Why else do you see so little coverage of the abuse by local police? It’s been pointed out here in the past that the mainstream media is generally derelict in holding the police accountable, and this poor guy’s case is practically a case study on that. Everything about his case should make the public sympathetic to him.
Greetings, I am the Proprietor of Tidewater Liberty, the blog referred to.
I started posting on the Pilot about that .223 casing as soon as I saw it on the search inventory because it contradicted the official statements. The first few times, it was removed, but after I put it up on my own blog and the word got around, they stopped pulling them down and have not censored me in any way since then.
If you want to know where I am coming from in this, see TidewaterLiberty.com and, in the January Archive, read “Knock-knock”
Thanks for your interest in this threat to Liberty.
Don,
The first few times, it was removed, but after I put it up on my own blog and the word got around, they stopped pulling them down and have not censored me in any way since then.
Again, I don’t know how many times you might have posted at the Pilot site, but the comment of yours I linked to in #3 above was on January 25, in response to a news article dated January 25. You don’t appear to have posted the same information on your blog until February 2.
Thanks for finding that. The Jan 25th post is probably one of those that disappeared. Perhaps they changed their minds and cleared it. I first became aware of the .223 case when the link to the search results was posted with the “All officers were wearing body armor” article, and that was the first time I posted on it. It remained up for about a day, then vanished. I have not looked back to see if it reappeared.
A post with that information also disappeared a few days later. I have not checked to see if it also reappeared. In any case, the Pilot is no longer censoring anything I have written lately.
This is only a guess on my part.
Perhaps the Pilot was pulling down the “.223″ posts because the blogger was, in effect, “stepping on” a future Pilot exclusive. The Pilot stopped pulling down the posts for two reasons: First, due to the blogger’s protests, the censorship was calling more attention to the “.223 issue” than the posts themselves. Second, after the Pilot exclusive comes out, the fact that a NEWSPAPER censored the truth in order to sell a few more copies would prove rather embarrassing to those Professional Journalists who imagine that journalism is a sacred trust to promote truth, justice and the American way.
Most police beat reporters are, IMHO, a bit too close (personally) to the people they are supposed to cover objectively. They have to be. Police beat reporting would be pretty hard if the cops were mad at you. The cops would refuse to discuss anything informally with you, but they would tell your competition everything they needed to know in order to write the story quickly and get home in time for an early dinner.
Lastly, let’s think about the writting involved in police beat reporting–very much by formula. Yadda, yadda, yadda. It would be hard to cover shoplifting with the journalistic flare one needs to display in order to get a move up job to the NY Times. Dog bites man, drunk driving, noise complaint–this is not the raw material for Pulitzer prize winning journalism. But drug raid goes very wrong and man bites dog??? If a cop’s .223 did the cop killing, this is Greek tragedy. I want to write that story, and I want to keep the Washington Post away from “my” exclusive high grade material, and I don’t want some stupid blogger blowin’ it for me. It’s a complete guess, but the Pilot has agreed to give the cops some time “on the .223 thing” until the cops get a few things settled in “thier family.” In return, the cops give the pilot an exclusive and several size large IOU’s. BTW, if the Pilot does not play ball, the Pilot will get zero consideration from the cops for the next twenty years.
I think Balko knows the WaPo guy who covered the Culosi shooting (was the Metro reporter’s name Jackson???). If Balko owes Jackson a solid, Balko should give Jackson a tip on the .223 thing and see what turns up.
Has anybody seen the autopsy report yet?
It would be amazing if the officer was in fact struck by his own guys .223.
Awe but lets not rush here.
A couple things stuck out to me when I looked at the Affidavit, Inventory(ies), etc.
First, there was zip, nada, nil, nein mention of firearms in the affidavit, yet the very thing they first mentioned looking for in the warrant was evidence of weapons violations. Kinda pisses all over “particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
On Jan 22, an inventory described the various firearms related findings of the search: a .380, some ammo, shell casings (including that intriguing and bothersome .223), and of course, Ryan’s TV. It’s foreign ya know. It can be fenced by the cops upon “forfeit”.
But then they decided to change the inventory the next day to include “marijuana” (with no quantity), Ryan’s pipe, some containers, some grow lights, hydroponic stuff, etc.
So where are the Jap maples and banana trees? Didn’t they notice those? And why 2 inventories?
I’m just asking….
Oh, and that scale mentioned in the warrant didn’t exist, obviously.
Good run-down of evolving police public announcements:
http://www.kayak2u.com/blog/?p=178
….I still want to know why they confiscated his television set (was it shot at?).
The most interesting part of the original warrant is that Detective KS Roberts affirms at the top that their CI had made controlled buys, yet the sworn affidavit contains nothing explaining the claim.
Post #9. I just spent the last 30 minutes surfing the web for a copy of the medical examiner’s report on Det. Shivers without any results. All I’ve seen is a public announcement by the ME that Det. Shivers died as a result of a bullet wound to chest and arm. If anyone finds a copy of the report, please post a link. Some blogger at infrequently asked questions (”IFAQ”) represents further specificity regarding the ME’s report, but provided no link or basis for the additional information.
Post #10. There are two search warrants and two inventories. The first search warrant (requested by Det. K.S. Roberts of Special Investigations Section) was for marijuana based on the allegations of a confidential informant. In connection with this search warrant, the following things were seized (1) marijuana (undisclosed amount); (2) 6 lights; (3) 3 transformers; (4) 4 small tub containers and 1 large tub container; (5) smoking devices; (6) a fan; (7) books and magazines; (8) a blue container with miscellaneous items (I love the specificity in this inventory); and (9) a pay stub. I’ve got no clue how a pay stub comes within the scope of the first search warrant.
After Det. Shivers was killed, a second search warrant was issued (requested by Det. J.B. VanMeter of crimes against persons division) to look for evidence of weapons possession and evidence of Ryan Frederick’s intent to commit murder. This search warrant states that Det. Shivers was killed by Ryan Frederick, which claim is based on statements made by one police officer (unnamed) who was present at the shooting. Pursuant to this search warrant, the police seized: (1) a broken door; (2) a Bersa .380 handgun; (3) a projectile; (4) 2 .380 casings; (5) a .223 casing; (6) 4 rounds of .380 ammunition; (7) a magazine for the .380 rounds; (8) a t.v.; (9) a pry bar; (10) a battering ram; (11) a shoe; and (12) a flashlight.
This page (http://hamptonroads.com/2008/01/all-officers-were-wearing-body-armor-during-shivers-shooting) has links to .pdfs of both search warrants and both inventories.
You’ve got to love that the police inventoried what has got to be their own battering ram as evidence of Ryan Frederick’s intent to commit murder.
Kukulkan:
I assume you’re right and I misread. Thanks for the second warrant info.
Still didn’t see a damn thing about Japanese maples though. And it’s ridiculous that a second warrant was needed for the .380, which, of course, was a homicide weapon. C’est la vie.
Regards.
Radley, thanks for pointing out that blog post. Don Tabor, the Chairman of the Tidewater Libertarian Party runs that blog, as he posted here. I am a co-author there under my real name, Rick Caldwell. I am also the owner of the other blog mentioned in the comments, InFrequently Asked Questions.
As far as I know, you won’t find a copy of the ME report online. I saw a hard copy of it, via a friend of mine who is an attorney not actually connected with the case. I’ve also had an opportunity to try on the type of armor Det. Shivers would have been wearing.
My blog post where I wrote about the ME report was actually a set of questions that augmented the ones asked by Radley. The ME report was reported by the Virginian Pilot that he was shot through the arm and chest. In the ME report, it says he was killed with a single shot that entered first his left shoulder, then his chest.
Although the shoulder is technically part of the arm, the distinction is an important one. That characterization conjures an image that the officer was shot center mass, straight through the biceps/triceps area into the chest, with the officer standing sideways. Knowing that he was shot through his shoulder, though, changes the position of Det. Shivers. The only way a bullet can make a straight line through the shoulder to the chest, without being stopped by his body armor, is through the top. That places Det. Shivers in a prone position, perpendicular to Ryan.
Ryan claims the latter, police officials and the Fraternal Order of Police claim Ryan shot through the door, also a dubious claim, given the limited stopping power of a .380.
You may also be interested in knowing that there will be a rally in support of Ryan on 23 February, across the street from the Chesapeake Correctional Center.
This is probably only of interest to readers from Southeastern Virginia, but any way to get the word out is beneficial.
blewsdawg:
Did the ME recover the projectile that killed Det. Shivers? If so, was it a .223 or a .380 projectile?