BULLET MAKER NOT RESPONSIBLE

Woman Died In Drug Raid

The manufacturer of a special bullet that Richmond police used to break
into an East End apartment in December 1999 was not responsible for the
death of a woman hit by one of the bullets.

A Richmond Circuit Court jury reached that conclusion last night in
returning its verdict for Defense Technology Corp. of America.

Charles H. Cuthbert Jr., the attorney for the two daughters of Christie
Green, also named Richmond policemen George Ingram and John Buckovich as
defendants, but a judge ordered the cases against the manufacturer and the
policemen tried separately.

No trial date has been set for the suit against the policemen.

According to testimony in the case, SWAT officers raided the apartment at
1112-C Dove St. after developing information that armed men were dealing
drugs out of the residence.

Ingram used a special type of shotgun shell called a breaching round to
shoot the lock off the kitchen door to the apartment. The shell has a
compressed zinc powder rather than a typical lead shot and is designed to
disintegrate once it hits a solid object.

Many police departments across the country use the rounds because they are
considered faster and safer than a battering ram in gaining quick entrance
through a locked door.

Cuthbert contended that Green, 18, was struck in the chest by a fragment
from one of five rounds fired by Ingram. The round was defective and did
not disintegrate as Defense Technology had promised that it would, Cuthbert
said.

Defense attorneys William D. Bayliss and W.F. Drewry Gallalee countered
that the round performed as designed but was misused by police.

The round is intended to be fired at a metal lock at a 45-degree angle
downward into a door jamb, Bayliss said.

The rounds fired by Ingram blew a 1-inch-by-21/2-inch hole in the wooden
door near a deadbolt lock. At least three rounds appeared to have gone
cleanly through the door and struck a kitchen cabinet inside the apartment.

Green was near the cabinet when she was hit.

Her sister has adopted her 6-year-old daughter, Kevasha, and a family
friend has custody of 4-year-old DiQasha.

Police seized heroin, cocaine, $1,561 in cash and four firearms from the
apartment in arresting six men inside.