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Dead homeowner...no drugs found. Another statistic in the war on drugs...and no-knock warrants.
David Hooks was shot in the back and head as he lay face down on the floor during a drug raid by Laurens County deputies. Shook, who is representing his family, says the raid was illegal and has asked the FBI to investigate.
He says officers were looking for drugs in the home, but didn't find any. Shook says the officers fired 17 shots inside the home and struck Hooks.
He says Hooks had four wounds, two of which he says are very problematic. Shook says that's according to the Laurens County EMS records. He says the same information is found in the medical records from Fairview Park Hospital.
"One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots," says Shook.
Shook says they have not received the autopsy yet from the GBI.
Teresa Hooks, David's wife, remembers the night clearly.
She says, "Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8 men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, 'Who is it?,' and I said I didn't know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over."
She says, "Initially, I thought that I was going to die, I thought I was going to be shot, I thought a gang had broke in, and up until I heard the radios the dispatch radios, I had no idea."
Hooks says she sat outside in handcuffs for two hours after her husband was shot to death.
She says during that time, she had to watch her husband on a stretcher without a word from officers about what was going on.
Hooks says she appreciates all of the support from the community
She says, "Our community has supported us for the most part and we really appreciate that. I think there's been a misconception of us being anti law enforcement, that's not true, we realize there has to be law enforcement and we respect law enforcement but this was wrong."
Shook says, "We hope that the district attorney will take all of this into consideration and take this case before the grand jury and do it in a matter where the grand jury hears everything, not just the officer side of the story."
County Sheriff Bill Harrell has declined comment on the raid since turning the investigation over to the GBI.
In September, authorities say Hooks responded to the search by getting a weapon before he was shot. But according to the return search warrant, the shotgun Hooks had in his hands had no ammunition.
A GBI spokeswoman says they are still awaiting lab results before completing their investigation.
Then the case will be turned over District Attorney Craig Fraser for possible prosecution.
Friends and supporters of David Hooks plan a rally to protest his killing. It's scheduled for 2 PM Saturday, at the Laurens County courthouse.
He says officers were looking for drugs in the home, but didn't find any. Shook says the officers fired 17 shots inside the home and struck Hooks.
He says Hooks had four wounds, two of which he says are very problematic. Shook says that's according to the Laurens County EMS records. He says the same information is found in the medical records from Fairview Park Hospital.
"One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots," says Shook.
Shook says they have not received the autopsy yet from the GBI.
Teresa Hooks, David's wife, remembers the night clearly.
She says, "Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8 men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, 'Who is it?,' and I said I didn't know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over."
She says, "Initially, I thought that I was going to die, I thought I was going to be shot, I thought a gang had broke in, and up until I heard the radios the dispatch radios, I had no idea."
Hooks says she sat outside in handcuffs for two hours after her husband was shot to death.
She says during that time, she had to watch her husband on a stretcher without a word from officers about what was going on.
Hooks says she appreciates all of the support from the community
She says, "Our community has supported us for the most part and we really appreciate that. I think there's been a misconception of us being anti law enforcement, that's not true, we realize there has to be law enforcement and we respect law enforcement but this was wrong."
Shook says, "We hope that the district attorney will take all of this into consideration and take this case before the grand jury and do it in a matter where the grand jury hears everything, not just the officer side of the story."
County Sheriff Bill Harrell has declined comment on the raid since turning the investigation over to the GBI.
In September, authorities say Hooks responded to the search by getting a weapon before he was shot. But according to the return search warrant, the shotgun Hooks had in his hands had no ammunition.
A GBI spokeswoman says they are still awaiting lab results before completing their investigation.
Then the case will be turned over District Attorney Craig Fraser for possible prosecution.
Friends and supporters of David Hooks plan a rally to protest his killing. It's scheduled for 2 PM Saturday, at the Laurens County courthouse.
The search warrant to raid Hooks’ home came about after a local meth addict named Rodney Garrett came onto the property two nights earlier and stole one of Hooks’ vehicles. Garrett claimed that before he stole the vehicle, he broke into another vehicle on the property and stole a plastic bag. Garrett claimed he thought the bag contained money, but when he later examined it and discovered it contained 20 grams of meth and a digital scale, he “became scared for his safety” and turned himself in to the sheriff’s office.
(Hooks’ family, however, said that Garrett had been identified as the burglar and a warrant issued for his arrest the day after the burglary. He was arrested the following day; the raid happened that same night.)
Garrett’s claims were the primary basis for the search warrant. But investigators also claimed they were familiar with the address from a 2009 investigation in which a suspect claimed he had supplied ounces of meth to Hooks, who resold it. Nothing apparently ever came of that investigation, but the five-year-old uncorroborated tip made it into the search warrant application.
And it was enough to get a search warrant from a compliant magistrate. Hooks family attorney Mitchell Shook said that even though the warrant was not a no-knock warrant, the Laurens County SWAT team did not announce its presence, but just broke down the back door of the residence.
(Hooks’ family, however, said that Garrett had been identified as the burglar and a warrant issued for his arrest the day after the burglary. He was arrested the following day; the raid happened that same night.)
Garrett’s claims were the primary basis for the search warrant. But investigators also claimed they were familiar with the address from a 2009 investigation in which a suspect claimed he had supplied ounces of meth to Hooks, who resold it. Nothing apparently ever came of that investigation, but the five-year-old uncorroborated tip made it into the search warrant application.
And it was enough to get a search warrant from a compliant magistrate. Hooks family attorney Mitchell Shook said that even though the warrant was not a no-knock warrant, the Laurens County SWAT team did not announce its presence, but just broke down the back door of the residence.
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