Kevin Lake
Eugene Mallory, 80 years old, was a retired engineer and he lived in Littlerock, California with his wife, Tonya Pate, and his step son, Adrian Lamos. In June of last year, Mallory had no idea that the local police department was casing out his home. For four days, local law enforcement officers (LEO’s) staked out his home, because one of the officers had “smelled traces of chemicals” down-wind from the property.
Suspecting that there was a meth lab on the property, LEO’s got a no-knock warrant for Mallory’s home, which means they did not have to announce their presence or intentions to enter the house. They could merely kick the door in and investigate, which is what they did on the fateful day of 27, June, 2013.
Mallory, suffering age related hearing loss and loss of vision, was allegedly in his bedroom toward the back of the house at the time that LEO’s entered. Hearing the break in, he grabbed his handgun and went to the front of the house to investigate. When the LEO’s saw him coming out, pistol in hand, they told him to drop the gun. When he did not, they shot him six times, and he died at the scene in less than an hour.
It turned out there was no meth lab on the property. Police did confiscate a small amount of marijuana, but it did not belong to Mallory. It belonged to his step son, who had a license to own and use the marijuana for medical purposes.
Police involved with the incident say that it is a lesson for all citizens that age is not a factor when it comes to being told what to do by LEO’s. If you have a gun, and you are told to put it down, then you’d better put it down, or you face being shot dead.
Mallory’s widow claims that her former husband more than likely could not understand what the police were saying, due to his hearing loss, and could not tell that they were uniformed men, due to his vision problems. She has since filed a $50 million dollar wrongful death suit.
David Clevelend, a member of the Littlerock City Council told media outlet Reason.com that the incident highlights the reason many in the community do not trust LEO’s. “People have found again and again that agencies which are supposed to be serving the people are actually acting in ways that are oppressive to the people,” he said.
