CITIZEN DOWN

Pervasive Silence Benefits No One

Nobody expects law enforcement to crank out a double-spaced press release
two minutes after a drug raid goes bad and someone who's not a suspect is
shot. What is expected is an outside inquiry followed by a public accounting.

By the same token, no one should expect instant, detailed reports about the
ongoing investigation of people who are suspects and who were the intended
objects of the raid. Details will begin to come out as the cases develop.

Fair enough. But here, almost two weeks after the shooting, are five
questions that could have been answered without jeopardizing the inquiry
into the Feb. 27 shooting of Charles Alford at his residence by a
Cumberland County deputy, or the investigation of Garry Jermaine Alford and
Lakina Paulette Alford:

Was an arrest warrant issued for Charles Alford?

Was an arrest warrant issued for Andrea Whitted, aunt of two children who
were with her in the house at the time of the raid?

Was an arrest warrant issued for either of the children, Xavier Whitted or
Makayla Whitted?

Did the special-response team know that any of those people were in the house?

Did the team know that neither Garry Jermaine Alford nor Lakina Paulette
Alford, who, according to a Sheriff's Office spokesman, had been under
investigation "for a number of months," was in the house?

The public has a reasonable curiosity about all that.

A Sheriff's Office spokesman listened only to the first question and then
referred all of them to the SBI. At the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration the proprieties were observed - transfers, phone mail, more
phone mail, etc. Perhaps a call will have been returned before this sees
print, although that, too, can come under the heading of "phone tag." An
SBI agent was more forthcoming. In order, his answers were: "Not to my
knowledge," "Don't know," "No," "Don't know," and "Don't know."

These agencies have work to do. But a man lies critically wounded because
officers sworn to uphold and enforce the law forced their way into a house
in which it seems that no one present was a suspect, and one of them shot him.

Some agency head could make a public acknowledgment of that much, at the
least. The very least. The law may not require it, but it's the right thing
to do.