A SWAT Team of 20 officers surrounded the house of a suspected accomplice to a drug suspect. They had obtained a legal warrant to search the Compton, California home. The officers didn't know who was inside and it was dark.

The officers entered the house after shooting open both the front and back doors.

Caught the drug suspects by surprise? No. They caught the family of Mario Paz by surprise as they slept. None the less, police shot and killed 65-year-old Mario Paz.

They then ransacked the house searching for drugs and other information in an attempt to link someone in the home with the original drug suspect Marcos Beltran Lizarraga, who had been released on bail the morning of the raid.

They instead discovered the family's life savings of $10,000 in cash and seized it. They also discovered some guns. Seized them too.

El Monte Assistant Police Chief Bill Ankeny said he was unsure if his department's narcotics unit knew whether the family was living at the Compton home when it was raided by the SWAT team. He said the team of up to 20 officers was looking for evidence that could be used in a case against Chino drug suspect Marcos Beltran Lizarraga.

"We didn't have information of the Paz family being involved in narcotics trafficking," Ankeny said in an interview Thursday with the LA Times. "To my knowledge, right now, we don't have any information that the Paz family was dealing in narcotics. To our knowledge they were not."

Ankeny said El Monte police asked for the warrant to search the home after some phone bills, Department of Motor Vehicles records and other mail bearing the family's address was found among Beltran's possessions. The family says Beltran lived next door in the 1980s and persuaded Paz, a father of six and grandfather of 14, to let him receive mail at the Paz home.

Paz was shot to death in the back in full view of his wife, Maria Luisa, by an officer who entered their bedroom during the raid

Why did they kill Mr. Paz? Three explanations have been offered:

Paz owned a .22 rifle and had 3 pistols in the home, 2 pistols near the bed and the .22 rifle and other pistol in a corner of the bedroom, according to police.

For more details see:

And what is their defense?

Sheriff's homicide investigator Lt. Marilyn Baker says:

"I personally think that four weapons are a lot for one person to have next to the bed. If you had one, would you keep it next to your bed? Probably. But four?"

So Mr. Paz is dead because he had too many guns? How many guns did the SWAT team have? How many machineguns, assault weapons, tear gas canisters, grenades, and armored vehicles did they have? How many hundreds of rounds of ammo were at their disposal?

To quote RickG from an email I received:

"[So a] heavily armed, government assault-group blasts its way into a home and kills a law-abiding homeowner; [and] the offending party talks about the homeowner having too many guns?"

Yes, Rick, it does seem that they now have the power to KILL you, seize everything you own, and lock up your family because you have "too many" guns.

I remember when the media jumped all over the NRA for calling AG Reno and the ATF a bunch of jack-booted thugs, after Waco.

Of course, now it seems that Reno may have been involved from the start in a cover up of the murders at Waco for which their have been no convictions, except of course the surviving victims.

Does a search warrant now give the government the power to blast its way into a home using maximum firepower and murder anyone inside?

It seems so.