Capital murder defendant says friendly fire killed police officer, not him

Published: Jun. 29, 2016 at 12:33 PM CDT
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In a federal civil rights complaint a man accused of killing one Killeen police officer and wounding three others during a narcotics raid says it was police gunfire that struck the officers, not his.

Marvin Louis Guy, 51, filed the federal civil rights violation complaint initially on May 9 and amended it on May 31, federal court records show.

Guy is being held in the Bell County Jail charged with capital murder by terror and three counts of attempted capital murder in connection with the May 9, 2014 death of Officer Charles Dinwiddie and the wounding of officers David Daniels, Xavier Clark and Otis Denton.

The officers were engaged in serving a “no knock” search warrant at Guy’s home as part of a narcotics investigation.

In his complaint, Guy says Dinwiddie and the other three officers were hit by police gunfire during a hail of bullets fired that morning outside Guy’s 1104 Circle M Drive home.

Guy names the City of Killeen, the Killeen Police Department, police Chief Dennis Baldwin, Detective Sgt. Jonathan Rinehart, Dinwiddie and officers Clark and Officer Willie H. Wingfield as defendants.

The lawsuit asks the federal court to dismiss the charges against Guy and provide monetary damages to him.

Dinwiddie was commander of the SWAT team that was tasked with serving the search warrant at 5:45 a.m. that morning.

In the introduction to the lawsuit Guy says the noise and confusion that unraveled on the morning of the raid “(put) me in fear of me and my family (sic) safety.”

He does not contest that fact that he fired gunshots during the exchange.

In the narrative, Guy points out that the police department’s ban of such “no knock” warrants after Dinwiddie’s death “constitutes defendant’s admission that non knock (Tactical Response Unit) police raids posed high risk circumstances rendering unsafe and too dangerous …”

The complaint also says that a subsequent search of his residence failed to recover any narcotics.

Guy says he was unjustly accused of capital murder and attempted capital murder because it is his belief that Dinwiddie and the other officers were “shot by their fellow police officers in a crossfire of reckless and hostile police gunfire.”

Guy says in the complaint that based upon information he has gathered “the death of defendant Charles Dinwiddie was determined to be an accident by Texas Ranger and/or FBI crime scene investigation reports.

Neither the Rangers nor the FBI would comment on the investigation.

A phone call to Killeen police seeking comment was not returned.

The complaint says the initial attempt by police to breech his front door failed and following that officers made no effort to contact or communicate with him.

Guy’s complaint says at least one of the officers involved in the raid filed a false report about the incident, as well.