Los Angeles Raid House Because It Smelled Like Meth Lab, Kill 80-Year-Old In His Bed In Claimed Self-Defense . . . And Find No Meth Or Lab Equipment

There is a disturbing story out of Los Angeles where Eugene Mallory, 80, was killed during a June 27 raid by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. Police raided the home because it reportedly smelled like a meth lab. In the end, no methamphetamine was found but Mallory laid dead with no fewer than six gunshot wounds. His widow is planning a lawsuit.

Police say that two guns were found at the scene and that Mallory raised one of them as deputies approached. The Sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Whitmore insisted that “The lesson here is… don’t pull a gun on a deputy.”

Mallory, a former engineer with Lockheed Martin, and his family insisted that he would never threaten an officer. They insist that he was shot in his bed before any warning was given.

An autopsy appears to show that he was shot in his bed and his family notes that he did not have his glasses on at the time (and that he would not be able to see the officers without them). They also say that he did not have the finger dexterity to grip a razor to shave himself, let alone a gun.

Police insist that there were marijuana plants growing in another part of the property and thus this was an illegal growing operation, though that is entirely different from the meth lab allegation leading to the search. Besides more details on the shooting, I am interested in the foundation for this warrant. In cases like this, it seems that judges and magistrates sometimes blindly sign off on any allegation like “smelling like a meth lab.”