DAD GRATEFUL SON, OFFICERS SURVIVED

Father Commends Winnipeg Police

THE father of Daniell Ian Anderson commended Winnipeg police
yesterday for not killing his son.

"I'm so grateful that the police didn't shoot him dead," 54-year-old
Monty Anderson said in an exclusive interview.

He said he was also grateful that the officers the youngest of his
three sons allegedly shot also survived.

Danny -- the son his father calls the most caring and considerate of
his three boys -- faces attempted murder charges following a drug
raid late Thursday night at the Anderson's Fort Rouge home. Three
police officers were shot in the incident and hospitalized.

Danny, who had been dining at the Garwood Grill to celebrate his
girlfriend Ashley Cochrane's last university exam just before the
raid, also suffered bullet wounds to the hand and arm.

"He said he lost three fingers," Monty Anderson said, after finally
hearing from his son. "And he has a hole in his arm." One of his
lawyers also said Danny's battered face looked like "an eggplant."

Contrary to reports about Danny escaping from the house and being
arrested a few doors away at Jubilee and Cockburn, his mother,
Bonnie, said she watched her son being "dragged" out of the house
after the shooting stopped.

Later, he was taken to St. Boniface General Hospital and then the
Public Safety Building.

It would be 24 hours before his family would hear from Danny again.
He called from the Remand Centre about 11 p.m. Friday night.

Danny was crying, his father said.

"The first thing he was saying was, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't
know.'... He was concerned about his mother and myself and his
girlfriend and he kept repeating, 'I didn't know, I didn't know.' "

What he "didn't know," according to his father, was that the people
who rushed into the Andersons' house while Danny was there with his
girlfriend and his mother were police officers executing a drug search warrant.

Police are trained to immediately identify themselves when they raid
a residence armed with a warrant. But it's conceivable, given the
suddenness of the event -- the pounding at the door and Bonnie
Anderson's screaming as police burst in -- that Danny didn't hear
them identify themselves before hiding in the main floor bathroom,
from where he allegedly shot blindly from behind the door.

"He thought it was a home invasion or something," Monty Anderson said.

That could be understandable, given Danny's personal history in the same home.

Danny was at home, three or four years ago, his father said, when a
group of men broke in reportedly looking for drugs and money.

The brothers and a friend managed to fight them off, his father said.

"You just don't forget stuff like that," Monty said.

But the 12 police officers involved in the raid Thursday would have
no record of that event.

Monty said it wasn't reported.

According to Monty, he had three long rifles locked in the basement
that are registered. If police had checked the registry, they
presumably would have known about them. One would think that should
prompt the calling out of the better-armed and more experienced
Emergency Response Unit.

But there's more to Danny's being victimized by violent people in
large numbers.

About two years ago, the former Grant Park Pirates linebacker -- who
stands over six feet and weighs more than 200 pounds -- was swarmed
outside a Pembina Highway bar.

"They stabbed on his neck, on his face. They stabbed him in the chest."

Monty said his son was "in serious shape" after the attack.

"He was in the hospital for a week or two or three."

Those two incidents, Monty suggested, would be enough to spook
anybody about large numbers of people suddenly breaking through one's
door late at night.

"I don't understand why they didn't knock on the door, say, 'We're
the Winnipeg police. We have a search warrant. And just proceed in. I
don't know why the movie antics. Why that hour of the day?' "

The answer to why police don't politely knock during drug raids, has
to do with the element of surprise, and having a better chance of
finding evidence before it is "flushed." "Whatever they were looking
for," Monty said, "it wasn't there."

Police asked Monty early Friday morning at the Public Safety Building
if his son dealt marijuana from the house.

Monty said he told them not to his knowledge.

But, it should be mentioned, at least one of the Anderson sons is
well known as a member of the drug underworld by young adults in
affluent south Winnipeg neighbourhoods such as Tuxedo.

The Andersons' middle son, Darren, who turned 23 on the day of the
raid, was arrested last January on drug and related charges and is
expected to be released from jail at the end of the month.

Danny has no criminal convictions.

The reason his father contacted the Free Press was to stress that last fact.

"He isn't a gang affiliate or anything. He had some assorted friends
who have gotten in trouble."

"People who know Danny know this isn't him," his dad said. "He isn't
a monster like everyone thinks," said his girlfriend of five years,
Ashley Cochrane. "Anyone who knows Daniell knows this is not him."

His father echoes that: "Anybody who has ever met him has nothing but
good things to say about him."

Well, maybe not everyone.

But there is a demonstrated soft side to Daniell Ian Anderson.

Last summer, he gave his father a wallet-size grad photo.

On the back he wrote:

To Dad

xoxo

Love Daniell

Photographs, his father knows, are all he might have to remember his
son by if things had gone differently Thursday night.

"I'm so grateful for that," Monty Anderson repeated. "Whatever comes
down the pike, at least he's alive."