Help Matthew Stewart
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The mistakes made by officers at Matthew’s home are all too common with the Ogden Police. Failing to properly announce themselves, wear identifying clothing, or perform reasonable research before taking action creates an unsafe situation for everyone involved.
In the early hours of Dec. 20, Ogden Police surrounded the home of Eric Hill’s family with guns drawn and arrested Eric Hill before realizing he wasn’t the suspect they were looking for. The mistakes don’t end there.
The Ogden Police failed to properly announce and identify themselves. Startled awake by his terrified daughter, Eric armed himself and prepared to confront the noises heard outside by his daughter. Eric then heard banging at the door to his home but no announcement of who was outside. “I’m asking who it is and I’m not getting any response and I’m asking louder and finally I hear ‘Ogden Police’” Eric said. “At that point, I didn’t believe it, it took them so long to respond to me.”
Making matters worse, the Ogden Police officers were not wearing easily identifiable markings. Hill said the men were dressed in black and had no police identifiers that he could see. What he did see were the three assault rifles and two tactical shotguns aimed at him when he opened the door.
Eric’s wife prepared to dial 911, but was met in the stairwell by a man holding an assault rifle. “I thought we were getting robbed,” she said. “I had no idea who the person on the stairs was.”
As they began to realize their mistakes, the officers commented about Eric coming to the door with a bat. Eric said they told him the situation could have ended much worse if he’d answered the door with a gun and one officer said that had it been a gun, the officers would have “blown him away”.
These same failures by the Ogden Police are responsible for the tragic events at Matthew’s home almost a year ago.
Matthew Stewart is being charged with aggravated homicide for defending himself and his home.
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During his arraignment today, Matthew reaffirmed his actions were in self-defense on that tragic night by entering not-guilty pleas on all counts.
Matthew’s defense team is still waiting on ballistics reports for all police officer shell casings which were conveniently unavailable in advance of the preliminary hearing. Despite objections from the prosecution, the judge granted a defense request to postpone the Scheduling Hearing until Feb 13, 2013 to allow time for those reports to be delivered.
On January 4th 2012, Matthew David Stewart was startled awake by loud noise and breaking glass. As a legally armed citizen, and in fear for his life, Matthew acted in self-defense by firing his weapon at the would-be assailants.
Matthew is being charged with aggravated murder.
Seeking justice is an expensive process.
Please click here to donate to Matthew’s defense.
