Houston's police chief said Friday that there appear to be "some material untruths or lies" in an affidavit used to get a warrant for a drug raid that left four officers shot and two people in the home dead.
Police Chief Art Acevedo emphasized that police "had reason to investigate that location" on Harding Street, a raid that ended in a shootout that killed the two occupants, Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58.
"Thus far it appears that there are some material untruths or lies in that affidavit — and that's a problem," Acevedo said. "That's totally unacceptable."
"More than likely, the investigating officer will be charged with a serious crime at some point," the chief said.
He added that there will be a review of past investigations, as well as a broader look at the department’s narcotics unit street level units.
Earlier Friday, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston obtained police documents that say narcotics Officer Gerald Goines justified the warrant request by claiming that he sent a confidential informant to make a narcotics buy at the home, and that the informant returned with what the informant said was heroin and said there was a weapon at the residence.
But in the police documents, an investigator said they were unable to find that informant, and that all the informants listed as working with Goines denied making a drug buy for him at that home or ever buying from Tuttle or Nicholas. Acevedo acknowledged those documents Friday, but did not name the officer.
The police department has said that when officers were serving the felony warrant at the home at around 5 p.m. on Jan. 28, they were met with gunfire and several officers returned fire, killing Tuttle and Nicholas.
Police have said that a small amount of marijuana and white powder believed to be cocaine or fentanyl as well as three shotguns and two rifles were recovered after the raid on the home. Goines was one of the four officers wounded in the shooting, according to police documents.
"We're going to get to the truth," Acevedo said. He said the police department is conducting “an impartial investigation into everything that occurred leading up to and during that raid."
nbcnews.com
