Texas prosecutors no longer are seeking the death penalty for a Black man accused of killing a white police detective and shooting three other officers during a botched no-knock raid in 2014, the Washington Post reports. The move came four months after the Post’s “Broken Doors” podcast investigated the case against Marvin Guy, who has been awaiting trial in jail for more than eight years after Killeen police raided his apartment without warning. Police suspected Guy was selling drugs and obtained a no-knock warrant for his apartment. Around 5:45 a.m. on May 9, a SWAT team shattered Guy’s bedroom window and shoved a battering ram into his front door. Thinking someone was trying to break in to rob or kill him, Guy grabbed his gun and fired through the window. Police fired back.
Police say that Guy shot four officers, including Charles Dinwiddie, a leader of Killeen’s SWAT team who later died from his injuries. The raid turned up no drugs. “After 8 years of delayed trial settings, this case needs resolution, and we seek to proceed in a manner that this case can finally be tried,” said prosecutor Fred Burns. “It is long past time to have this case tried to a jury.” Guy has maintained his innocence, saying that police accidentally shot the detective during the chaotic raid. The reversal in Guy’s criminal case comes as the federal government and localities across the U.S. curtail the use of no-knock warrants amid a growing awareness of the dangerous policing tactic. President Biden signed an executive order in May that included a ban on no-knock raids by federal law enforcement agencies in all but extreme cases.