When The SWAT Team You Founded Kills Your Son-In-Law

Decades after starting a SWAT team, Utahn William "Dub" Lawrence is now fighting the militarization of American police
by Karen Foshay

Al Jazeera America
Mar. 20, 2015

DAVIS COUNTY, Utah – William “Dub” Lawrence doesn't shy away from dirty work.

Unclogging the drains of sewage pits isn’t exactly how the 70-year-old planned to spend his golden years, but neither is his work investigating killings by police officers.

“I witnessed my son-in-law killed by the SWAT team I founded,” he said.

In 1974, Lawrence was elected sheriff of Davis County – in the northern suburbs of Salt Lake City. A year later, he launched the department’s first SWAT team, a specialized unit he envisioned for deescalating high-risk situations.

His preference was to resolve conflict without force, and his reputation for integrity became local lore. (He once wrote himself a parking ticket.)

“Andy Griffith is the right way to do it,” he told America Tonight, referring to the classic small-town sitcom cop. “He defused everything. He was a peace officer.”

But what happened one afternoon at his daughter’s home in Farmington, Utah, was a far cry from life in Mayberry.



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