Man gets plea deal in SWAT incident
On the eve of trial, the man who shot and wounded three Las Vegas SWAT officers as they broke into his home to serve a search warrant pleaded guilty to three felonies.
Emmanuel Dozier's trial was set to start Monday on 10 felony counts relating to the December 2008 incident, including three counts of attempted murder. He pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of sale of a controlled substance and one count of resisting a public officer.
As part of the plea agreement, the other charges were dropped. A sentencing hearing before Judge Valorie Vega is set for Sept. 13. Dozier faces probation or one to 10 years in prison.
Dozier, 34, remains free on $75,000 bond.
Deputy Public Defender Joseph Abood said his client "had no idea he was shooting at police and expressed nothing but remorse the second he found out that the guys breaking into his house to serve a search warrant were actually cops."
According to police reports and comments Dozier made to the Review-Journal after the shooting, he was apologetic from the beginning for shooting the officers and said he believed it was a home invasion.
"I'm not a vendetta cop killer," Dozier told the Review-Journal after the incident.
Dozier was being investigated by Las Vegas police for weeks leading up to the shooting. Undercover narcotics detectives had bought small amounts of cocaine from Dozier at his Seven Hills home in Henderson three times in December, according to a police report.
After obtaining a search warrant, SWAT officers were called to serve it because Dozier had a criminal history, including a 1996 arrest for second-degree robbery.
The SWAT officers announced that they were officers serving a search warrant, police said. When there was no response from inside the house, the officers tried to breach the metal security door.
The officers then were shot from inside the house, and each was struck in the thigh. One also was struck in the hand. They did not fire back.
Dozier eventually surrendered to police. At the time, his girlfriend, her 13-year-old daughter and the couple's 3-month-old son, were in the home.
Dozier suffered a black eye around his right eye while he was being arrested. Police said that while an officer was trying to put him in handcuffs, Dozier began to resist arrest, and another officer struck him in the face with his forearm while trying to force him to the ground.
The officers involved have recovered from their wounds.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.
