SWAT team destroys man's home to capture shoplifter
'In any civilized nation ... this is the act of
paramilitary thugs', Published: 6/6/15
Leo Lech used to be a Denver-area homeowner and landlord,
but that was before the local SWAT team, trying to extract a shoplifter who had
forced his way inside, turning his investment into a condemned property.
“There was one gunman with a handgun and they chose to
turn this house into something that resembles Osama Bin Laden’s compound,” Lech
told Denver’s KMGH News.
Lech’s problems began Wednesday, miles away in Aurora,
when Robert Jonathan Seacat, 33, was spotted attempting to shoplift. Seacat
fled, abandoned his car at the local light rail and took off on foot. As luck
would have it, Seacat randomly picked Lech’s Greenwood Village property to
force his way into to hide.
The home, rented to Lech’s son and his fiance, was
occupied at the time only by the woman’s nine-year-old son.
Seacat, armed with a handgun, opened fire on the police
when they arrived at the house, setting in motion a 20-hour standoff.
Fortunately, police dispatchers and the child’s mother were able to talk the
child out of the house.
According to police, the SWAT team employed chemical
agents, flash-bang grenades and a “breaching ram” to punch large holes in
nearly every room on the second floor.
A neighbor, whose home was used as SWAT headquarters
during the siege, said police also used explosives to breach the wall of the
house, the blast breaking a windshield in his vehicle.
“They drove their
tanks right though all our fences here,” said the neighbor.
“There are holes just like this one all through the back
of the house too,” Lech said. “They methodically fired explosives into every
room in this house in order to extract one person. Granted, he had a handgun,
but against 100 officers? You know, the proper thing to do would be to evacuate
these homes around here, ensure the safety of the homeowners around here, fire
some tear gas through the windows. If that didn’t work, you have 50 SWAT
officers with body armor break down the door.”
Lech estimates his plan of action might have resulted in
$10,000 damage to the house. Instead, police inflicted $250,000 worth of damage
and the home may have to be demolished.
“This is an abomination,” he said. “This is an atrocity.
To use this kind of force against one gunman,” Lech said.
KMGH sought comment from the Greenwood Village police
chief and reported he said, “We did what we had to do to protect human life.”
Comments
When the Homeowners Insurance company finished with the
Greenwood Village police, we should see no more of this.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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