2 ARRESTED, DRUGS SEIZED AT DAWSON HOME

Philadelphia police said yesterday that they found 20 bags of crack
and a drug dealer inside Donta Dawson's family home in North
Philadelphia Tuesday night. In turn, the family of the teenager slain
by a police officer denounced the police search as a retaliatory
attack. Dawson, 18, was shot to death Oct. 1 during a traffic stop.
Police Officer Christopher DiPasquale, 33, was criminally charged last
week with the killing. He is the first officer in six years to be
prosecuted for a homicide while on duty.

The latest incident involving the Dawson family began about 6 p.m.
Tuesday when police were conducting plainclothes surveillance on the
1700 block of West Pacific Street, where the Dawsons live.

Police said they saw a man selling crack cocaine, so they pursued him.
The man, identified as Xavier Lezar Vann, 27, fled into the Dawson
home, police said.

Police said they tried to enter the home, but the occupants held the
door closed. Police forced their way in and arrested Vann, who had
$453 in his pockets, but no drugs, authorities said.

Officers were posted inside and outside the house while a search
warrant was obtained, police said. When the officers returned with the
warrant about 10 p.m., they searched the house and found 22 packets of
what is believed to be crack cocaine on the first floor. Police
arrested Michel Felder, 20, of the 3600 block of Gratz Street, and
charged him with interfering with their search. Nobody else inside the
house was arrested, police said.

In a press release yesterday, Dawson's family and the National
People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, an organization critical of police
shootings, said the search was "illegal and terroristic."

"The real reason for this blatant violation of the family's rights is
retaliation for the fact that the family and the African community
forced the D.A. to arrest one of their own," the release said.

Vann, of the 7400 block of Georgian Road, was charged with drug
offenses.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry