Warrant return shows list of drugs, weapons found in raided home
HOUSTON (FOX 26) — FOX 26 News has obtained the return and inventory document for the search warrant execution that left five Houston police officers injured and two suspects dead on Harding Street on Jan. 28.
The warrant return spells out the exact amounts of drugs that were found in the raid that resulted in a deadly shootout. It also lists the kinds of guns that were inside the house.
Bullet holes still riddle the suspected drug house on the 7800 block of Harding Street. Those holes are now accompanied by scripture references and worship songs scrawled on the boarded-up windows and door.
The "officer’s return and inventory" document for the Jan. 28 search warrant now confirms four guns and two kinds of drugs were inside the house.
The document lists a 20-gauge Beretta shotgun, a 12-gauge Remington shotgun, a .22 caliber Winchester rifle, and a 7mm Remington rifle.
Police also seized 1.5 grams of an “unknown white powder” believed to be cocaine and 18 grams of marijuana.
The information on the return is different from what police listed on the affidavit as the reason for the no-knock raid. In the affidavit, police said they watched a trusted informant go to the home on Harding and purchase heroin. Police sid the informant told the officer at that time that he witnessed more heroin in the house in “a large quantity of plastic baggies.” The affidavit also said the informant told police the man in the house had a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.
The warrant return document shows neither heroin nor the semi-automatic handgun recovered from the home.
On Friday, Houston Police Department Chief Art Acevedo weighed in on the investigation into how the raid was executed.
"We're not going to piecemeal it," said Chief Acevedo. "We owe it to everyone involved to, number one, hold our conclusions 'til the end. Just think about the FBI investigation we did when we had that officer-involved shooting. We presented the initial information we had, and months later when we were done, we came back to the community, and we advised the community that what we were told in the front end of the investigation is not what we determined at the back end of our investigation. So I have complete faith in our investigators."
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division is preparing to review evidence from this case, but staff there told FOX 26 on Friday that they’re still waiting on police to finish collecting evidence before prosecutors can begin their work.