Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0/Black Crawling Systems Archive Release 1.0 (L0pht Heavy Industries, Inc.)(1997).ISO/tezcat/Guns/Live_Ammo.txt

Text File | 1996-07-08 | 7KB | 139 lines

From the Radio Free Michigan archives

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From the November 14 issue of The Spotlight (Subs 1-202- 546-5621, 300
Independence Ave SE,
Washington DC 20003)

LIVE AMMO LEFT AT SCENE OF "SWAT" Exercise Endangers Civilians

Live ammunition including an armed grenade were
left at a practice raid sight in suburban Detroit.

Exclusive to the Spotlight
by Mike Blair

     An investigation by the Michigan state Legislature is being
pressed as the result of a series of attacks by what appears to have
been SWAT-type teams of a multi-jurisdictional task force, including
National Guard or regular Army troops, in a residential area of a
Detroit suburb.
     Following the incident, which involved live ammunition, an
investigation at the scene was conducted by a Michigan state
representative and aides, revealing a live grenade, detonators for
plastic explosives and live rifle and pistol ammunition left at the
scene by the mock attack force.
     The vacant buildings in which the SWAT exercises took place were
not properly secured afterwards, leaving the live ordnance littered
about within the buildings to be picked up by curious children who
live nearby.
     "This sort of thing is outrageous and must be stopped," an angry
state Rep. Deborah Whyman, a Republican who lives in nearby Canton and
represents the 21st District of the Michigan House of Representatives,
told The Spotlight.
     The first incident occurred during the night of September 21 when
residents living near the vacant buildings, located near the Willow
Run Airport in Van Buren Township east of Detroit, called
township police to complain of automatic weapons being fired.
     The area is in the vicinity of what was once the largest
manufacturing operation ever housed under one roof, the nation's
biggest bomber factory operated by the Ford Motor Company during
World War II. After the war the site was utilized by the Aeronautical
Research Center of the University of Michigan and by the Packard and
Kaiser-Frazer automobile manufacturing companies.
     The Van Buren Township Police, who apparently had not been
notified that the SWAT teams were going to be using live ammunition,
told the residents that blank ammunition was being fired and
tried to assure them that only training exercises were being held and
they were not to worry.
     Then, on the morning of September 28, more automatic gunfire and
explosions erupted at the site, which included 12 vacant houses and
some surrounding property that had been purchased by Wayne County two
years ago for extending the runway of the Willow Run Airport.
     Again, frightened residents called police and reported the
disturbance but to no avail. Some of the residents said they saw
"Special Forces soldiers" involved in mock raids on the abandoned
houses.
     Rep. Whyman was asked by a constituent with a military background
to visit the site to personally inspect the live ordnance that had
been left behind by what were described by Van Buren Police as
"Department of Defense personnel," who had last been at the scene.
     In the first of several houses inspected by Rep. Whyman, her aids
and a number of military experts, live .223 caliber cartridges were
found littered about the stairway and in the cellar of the building.
Bullet holes were found in the walls.
     The .223 caliber cartridge is fired in the M-16 U.S. military
automatic assault rifle.
     It was noted that the cartridges contained soft-point, expanding
bullets, outlawed in warfare by the Geneva Convention due to their
ability to cause large, gaping wounds.
     On the second floor the legislator was horrified to find a stun
grenade, from which the pin had been pulled but had failed to
detonate, leaving it in a highly volatile state.
     Other spent grenade casings littered the houses that were
inspected, along with live 9-millimeter rounds, which could have been
used in either semi-automatic pistols or submachine guns utilized by
the attack teams. Also found in the first house inspected by Whyman
and her inspection party was a large photograph of David Koresh,
leader of the Branch Davidian group, who died with his followers when
their compound in Waco, Texas, was burned to the ground by FBI and
other federal agents and personnel when it was attacked by them last
year.
     In an upstairs bedroom of one of the abandoned homes a large
gaping hole penetrated a wall to the outside of the building, which
military experts with Rep. Whyman told her was probably caused by a
detonation of plastic explosives.
     While the group inspected the buildings they were being kept
under surveillance by men in two vehicles, a gray station wagon and a
black sedan. They were believed to be federal agents.
     Rep. Whyman told The Spotlight that they were also being watched
during their inspection tour by a uniformed Michigan State Police
officer, who drove past them several times in a marked Mustang highway
patrol car, normally used for high speed pursuit.
     Later, after the group had left the scene and gathered to discuss
the situation over lunch at a local fast food restaurant, Whyman
noticed that the same state trooper still had them under surveillance
from the restaurant parking lot.
     Rep. Whyman said that Van Buren Township Police seemed genuinely
disturbed and puzzled about the incident, while Wayne County Police,
who appeared at the scene during her inspection tour to collect live
ordnance were "less than cooperative."
     The live grenade was placed in what was described as a "bomb box"
and then placed on a truck and taken from the scene by Wayne County
police, who also collected the live cartridges.
     Later, although the live ordnance found at the scene had already
been photographed by local Detroit television crews, Wayne County
Police spokesman claimed that it did not exist at the scene,
leading Whyman and others to conclude that the county police may have
played some part in the multi-jurisdictional task force exercise.
     Rep. Whyman made certain that the police had cleared the area of
all live ordnance and had secured all of the abandoned buildings
before she concluded her inspection.
     The state representative told The Spotlight that she intends to
press for legislative hearings to determine precisely who was involved
in the mock attacks on the vacant building and who was responsible for
not properly clearing the area of live ordnance, thus endangering the
lives of neighborhood children.
     She said she also intends to introduce legislation making it
unlawful to use live ammunition in such operations in Michigan and
that if multijurisdictional task force exercises are held anywhere in
the state prior notification must be given.

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