A Houston police officer will “more than likely be charged with a serious crime” after lying in a search warrant for a January 28 drug raid in which two people were killed and five officers injured, the Houston police chief said.
Officer Gerald Goines obtained a search warrant by using an unnamed confidential informant to confirm that drugs were being sold in a Harding Street home, according to affidavits obtained by CNN. The affidavits, dated February 14, detail the investigation after the raid.
After the shooting occurred, Goines named informants to investigators, the affidavits state.
Those informants told authorities they had worked with the officer “in the past on several narcotics transactions,” but not for the warrant at the Harding Street address, according to the affidavits.
“It appears there are some material untruths and lies” in Goines’ initial search warrant affidavit for the home, HPD Chief Art Acevedo said.
Goines was one of the officers injured in the shooting. Nicole DeBorde, Goines’ lawyer, told CNN her client was still undergoing medical treatment and that his jaw is wired shut. “That’s why you’re not hearing the other side. He’s severely injured, he still can’t speak clearly,” DeBorde said. She also criticized the police chief’s comments about the case, calling them irresponsible.
“No matter what we end up with here we know we have a criminal violation already — and serious criminal violation — by the individual that prepared that affidavit,” Acevedo said in a Friday press conference.
“When we prepare a document to go into somebody’s home … it has to be truthful, it has to be honest, it has to be absolutely factual,” he said, adding that there’s a “high probability there will be a criminal charge.”
The police chief said the extent of the crime and the policies that were violated are still being investigated.
When narcotics officers breached the front door of the Harding street home on the evening of January 28, gunfire rang out almost immediately.
One of the suspects retreated to the back of the room and re-emerged, returning fire. The second was shot while trying to wrestle a shotgun away from an officer. Both suspects were killed.
Four undercover narcotics officers were struck by gunfire, police said. A fifth officer suffered a knee injury, according to Acevedo.
Investigators found no heroin on the premises, but found marijuana and a white powder believed to be cocaine or the powerful prescription painkiller fentanyl, Acevedo had said. They also seized three shotguns and two rifles.
Goines will be relieved of duty when released from the hospital, according to Acevedo.
