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FORT LAUDERDALE - The Fort Lauderdale police SWAT team had a plan that went unused for raiding the home of a man accused of killing one Broward County sheriff's deputy and wounding another from a multi-agency task force on child pornography.
Kenneth Wilk, 42, whom officials say once had an Internet profile listing a hobby of "hunting cops," faces a bond hearing on federal charges Tuesday. Prosecutors are deciding how to charge him in the fatal shooting of Detective Todd Fatta and the wounding of Sgt. Angelo Cedeno during the raid at Wilk's home Thursday.
Police had flagged dispatch computers to warn officers heading to the house "to use extreme caution" because of threats to officers and noted there were rifles and handguns in the house, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Saturday. The SWAT team detailed the layout in case of a siege, the Miami Herald reported.
A federal probation officer warned the task force last month that Wilk and former roommate Kelly Ray Jones had a cache of weapons at the house. Jones, a registered sex offender, was taken into custody when he walked out of his house in July.
But the police SWAT unit was not summoned when the task force executed the warrant looking for evidence of child porn, which Wilk and Jones discussed on a monitored phone call after the arrest. Wilk has been jailed on charges of conspiracy to possess child porn and witness tampering. In court Friday, Wilk said he suffers from AIDS dementia.
Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne promised to investigate the circumstances of the officers' shootings but backed the task force response. "They did not know if he was going to come out or not," Jenne said Friday. "When you're there, you make that practical decision, and the on-site commander made the correct decision to do it."