Cheryl Lynn Noel case reaches trial

It’s been over 4 years since Cheryl Noel was shot to death by cops in her bedroom. (My first coverage here.)
There’s no doubt that Cheryl was a Drug War Victim, but there were a lot of unanswered questions, and I’ve been waiting since then for more information with a standing news alert for her name.
Well, now perhaps the truth will come out (or at least more information. Her family is suing Baltimore County and the trial started this week. Peter Hermann covers it and it’s going to be contentious.

The way the attorney for the family suing Baltimore County describes it, heavily armed paramilitary police officers carrying ballistic shields and dressed in camouflage stormed a suburban Dundalk house over trace amounts of drugs without knocking and fatally shot a “devoted mother and wife” armed with a legally registered handgun to defend herself from intruders.
The way the attorney defending the police officers and the county describes it, professionally trained members of the SWAT team raided a suspected narcotics den containing marijuana and cocaine that was occupied by a convicted murderer with access to weapons and a teenager who had just shot another youth in a fight, resulting in the shooting of a woman holding a gun who refused to comply with the cop’s commands.

Peter Hermann is also following the case on his Baltimore Crime Beat blog. He’s already got a an incredibly detailed post going over all the preliminary statements by the attorneys, along with copies of the lawsuit and a police report detailing items removed.
It’s good to have someone on the ground following the lawsuit closely.