OFFICERS CLEARED IN OSAWATOMIE KILLING

County attorney says police acted in self-defense

Police officers didn't commit a crime when they shot and killed an
Osawatomie man in February while serving a search warrant on his house, a
prosecutor said Monday.

Willie Heard, 46, was shot once in the chest by a Paola police officer
during a raid at 1:25 a.m. Feb. 13. Officers from the Osawatomie and Paola
police

departments and the Miami County sheriff's department were searching Heard's
house for cocaine that they thought was being sold there.

The search turned up a small amount of a green substance thought to be
marijuana, but no cocaine. A few hours after the shooting, officers arrested
Heard's 23-year-old niece at her home next door. She has not been charged. A
lab is testing a substance found there, which police suspect is cocaine.

County Attorney David Miller reviewed reports from the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation and tapes of the raid before he told Heard's family Monday
that he wouldn't charge any officers. The Mid-States Organized Crime
Information Center in Springfield, Mo., filtered the sounds on the audio-
and videotapes after Miller said he couldn't understand what people were
saying on them.

"The investigation indicates that the officer acted in self-defense and in
defense of another officer,'' Miller wrote in a statement Monday.

The Paola officer was put on leave after Heard's death - a standard
procedure for an officer involved in a shooting - but is back at work now,
Miller said.

John Kurtz, a lawyer representing Heard's family, said the family
understands that there is a difference between what is needed to file a
criminal homicide charge and what is needed to prove a civil wrongful-death
case. The family planned to take the case forward, but had not filed a
lawsuit by Monday evening.

"The Heard family does not believe in any way whatsoever that the police
shooting of Willie Heard was necessary or proper,'' Kurtz wrote in a
statement released Monday.

The task force raided Heard's house at 721 Walnut St. after an officer
watched a confidential informant buy something - purported to be cocaine -
from a woman on Heard's front porch, Miller said. Police think the seller
was Heard's niece, Miller said.

A field test indicated that the man had bought cocaine, Miller said, and
Miami County District Judge Stephen D. Hill issued a search warrant.

Heard's 16-year-old daughter, Ashley Heard, said she was sleeping in the

living room when people burst into the house. She said she didn't hear
anyone identify himself as a police officer, so she shouted for her father.

The officers did identify themselves, Miller said.

``The video and audiotapes clearly document that the officers shouted
'Police search warrant,''' from the time they entered the residence until
Mr. Heard was shot,'' he wrote.

Officers heard a noise in Heard's bedroom, Miller said. They went in and
Heard pointed a .22-caliber rifle at an officer, Miller said. Eleven seconds
into the raid, the Paola officer shot Heard once in the upper left side of
his chest.

Heard's bolt-action rifle wasn't loaded, Miller said. A gun rack was on the
floor; police think Heard had knocked it over as he grabbed the rifle.

After the ambulance took Heard away, officers searched the house and
reported finding the suspected marijuana, papers and a pipe.

To reach Richard Espinoza, call (816) 234-7714 or send e-mail to
respinoza@kcstar.com