ONE HOUSE AT A TIME

SWAT Uses Methodical Approach In Drug War

SOUTH BEND -- Twelve members of the South Bend police Special Weapons and
Tactics team stand on a porch at 1115 West Van Buren St. on Wednesday night
behind Sgt. Scott Hanley, ready for him to take down the front door.

Hanley, whose job is known as "the breacher," holds a battering ram in his
hands.

Lt. Marc Mersich knocks on the door.

"Police with a warrant," he shouts.

Seconds later, Hanley takes his first crack at the entrance.

"It was like hitting a rubber door," Hanley will say later. "I hit it and it
came back."

On the inside, the door is reinforced with a two-by-four and brackets, which
is usually no match for the ram.

The second hit does not offer SWAT entry either, and the alternative plan is
swiftly put into motion.

Assistant SWAT team leader Cpl. Steve Smith alerts the team to "break and
rake," which means to break the front picture window and quickly rake the
drapes and glass out of the way so officers can get into the house that way
if the door doesn't give soon.

"The longer you're out there, the more vulnerable you are," Smith will later
say of waiting to enter.

A surveillance camera positioned at the front door of the home also makes
police vulnerable. The suspect will later reportedly tell police he saw the
SWAT team assemble on the porch on his 19-inch monitor upstairs.

Police see an arm reach out of a second story window and drop something. Lt.
Keith Schweizer, SWAT commander, observes a bag of marijuana hit the lawn
and cautions his team someone is upstairs.

Meanwhile, Hanley's fourth ram makes the door fly open. A team member throws
a distraction device into the home, which makes an explosive sound and
creates a blinding light.

The SWAT members scurry in. A man, who turns out to be the suspect, runs
down the staircase holding a toddler in front of him.

"He was holding the baby as if it were a shield," Mersich will later say. "I
went for the baby and Hanley grabbed the guy. It was instinctive."

From the time SWAT members get on the porch to the time they force
themselves in and capture their suspect, only 20 seconds pass. But the
planning that went into the foray took more than 40 hours.

This was one of 72 search warrant-related raids the SWAT team has led since
April. The warrants, which are usually drug-related, are obtained after
lengthy investigations by the Neighborhood Enforcement Services Team and the
Metro-Special Operations Section.

After the house is secure, SWAT leaves the scene and lets the units obtain
their evidence.

Briefing

About 15 minutes before Wednesday's raid, SWAT, NEST and M-SOS members met
in the Police Department's classroom to find out where they were going, why
and what to expect.

Fourteen wore black from head to toe; only their eyes were visible. Their
body armor read "Police" across the front and back. Some held weapons;
others left weapons lying on the tables next to them.

Very few officers were privy to the address of the search warrant before
this meeting, and no one was allowed to use a phone afterward, to prevent
the address being leaked out. It's a matter of officer safety.

The case before them was that of an alleged drug dealer, Orlando Branch, 29,
a renter at 1115 W. Van Buren St. Neighbors had complained to NEST that drug
deals were continually going on there. During a two- month investigation,
NEST investigators bought crack at the home and got a close look at the
layout of the house.

At the briefing, SWAT team leader Cpl. Derek Dieter displayed, on a
chalkboard, a hand-drawn map of the streets surrounding the house and a
diagram of the targeted home.

Police said at the meeting that Branch could be dangerous and is always
armed.

Next, Sgt. Chuck Flanagan of NEST shared details of the structure and what
and who may be inside the home.

"There's a front porch, two steps and the target door. There is no screen
door. There's a huge picture window in the front. There were some children
there," Flanagan said.

"Let's wait on the break and rake unless we need to. We don't want to break
the window and for there to be children underneath it," SWAT Commander
Schweizer said.

"There was a chance that children could have gotten hurt. But we didn't put
the kids in that situation. The people dealing drugs from the house put
those kids in that position," Schweizer said later that night.

The children -- 12, 9 and 18 months -- were not harmed in the raid, police
said, but they were frightened.

The baby wailed inconsolably for several minutes after SWAT's stormy
entrance.

The children were left in the care of a relative.

Before the SWAT members left the classroom for their assignment, they each
did a radio check to make sure everyone could communicate.

With nary a word, the officers went to their assigned vehicles behind the
department at 701 W. Sample St.

In a very disciplined fashion, the unmarked vehicles drove out of the
parking lot and west on Sample Street. An ambulance silently headed toward
the address, too, just in case.

Captain Robert Hammer, the commander of M-SOS, drove by the home first and
determined it was safe to proceed.

"No changes. It's a go," he said into his radio.

Two uniform units appeared from the shadows on either side of the 1100 block
of Van Buren. One blocked off access from Allen Street and the other blocked
off traffic at Sherman Avenue to ensure there would be no vehicular or
pedestrian traffic.

Within seconds, the SWAT team entered the home.

A Good Bust

In the bust, police netted $100 worth of marijuana from the bag the suspect
threw out the window. They also found $500, six firearms, ammunition and a
bulletproof vest.

The best evidence of illegal activity going on at the home, though, may have
been the surveillance equipment.

"It was high quality. It had video and audio," said Lt. Jeffrey Walters, who
supervises NEST and is a SWAT team member.

Officers speculated the camera and the reinforced door were to keep rival
drug dealers out rather than to keep out police.

Walters said investigators also seized from the home construction tools
reported stolen from three area job sites. Walters suspected drug customers
traded the stolen goods for narcotics.

Branch was charged Friday with the class B felonies of possession of
marijuana, maintaining a common nuisance and being a violent felon in
possession of a firearm. He remained at the jail Friday night on $5,000
bond.

A 19-year-old female, who lives at the home and was also arrested at the
scene, was charged Friday with a misdemeanor of visiting a common nuisance.
According to booking officials, she pleaded guilty and was released from the
jail.

The NEST and M-SOS teams have executed more than 90 search warrants this
year -- about twice as many as last year.

"We are going to continue to use every resource available to make
neighborhoods safe," said new community relations chief Gary Horvath, who
observed the raid with a reporter. Horvath was on the SWAT team for 13
years.

"We use search warrants, directed police patrols, neighborhood task forces,
nuisance abatements. We can even use the powers of the federal government's
anti-drug laws," Horvath said.

Officers seem convinced the drug war can be won, one street at a time.

"If you don't lock up these people and you have drug houses, pretty soon you
have to deal with addicts breaking into cars and houses looking for ways to
pay for the drugs," Horvath said.

Removing the drugs, guns and suspects from just one house, police believe,
can turn around a neighborhood. Police said the transformation begins when
residents call them or Crime Stoppers to report a suspected drug house.