Police Kill Wisconsin Man in "No Knock" Drug Raid

by Phillip Smith
StoptheDrugWar.org
Apr. 07, 2014

A Red Cedar, Wisconsin, was shot and killed by police during a February drug raid. Although we didn't catch the story at the time, Dennis Grohn, 32, becomes the 13th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to The St. Paul Pioneer Press, citing police sources, members of the Dunn County sheriff's office, the West Central Drug Task Force and Eau Claire County Regional Tactical Team hit Grohn's home with a "no knock" search warrant at 2:00am on February 12.

The details of what happened next are sketchy, but Grohn ended up shot and fatally wounded shortly thereafter. He was pronounced dead in the emergency room of the Mayo Health Clinic.

There is no mention in either the initial accounts of the raid or in the autopsy story of Grohn having or brandishing a weapon. But according to the search warrant, police were looking for weapons, as well as methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, and other indicia of drug sales at his home.

But Dunn County District Attorney James Peterson determined last month that the use of deadly force by the Eau Claire County Regional SWAT team was justified and offered up the following detail:

"According to an investigation done by the State Department of Criminal Investigation, a member of the SWAT team entered Grohn's garage and saw him sitting in a chair. The deputy says Grohn growled and charged him. The men collided, and the deputy shot Grohn once. The two then fell to the floor in a struggle. Another officer told investigators he saw Grohn's hand on the deputy's rifle and that he feared for his own, and the deputy's, life. He then fired one shot at Grohn, killing him. Prior to entering the home the swat team had been advised that this was considered a high risk entry. Grohn had a history of violence toward police officers, weighed 280 pounds, was suspected of having a shotgun and was likely under the influence of meth. Peterson says Grohn was also likely aware he was facing a lengthy prison sentence if he was caught selling meth."

The autopsy report on Grohn came out this week, and the Dunn County Medical Examiner's Office said he was "heavily under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of his death," and that the amount of meth in his blood was "near a toxic range." But it wasn't meth that killed Grohn, it was a policeman's gun shot.