In June 2010, Las Vegas police conducted a no-knock raid on Trevon Cole’s apartment, where he lived with his nine-months-pregnant fiancée. Cole, who occasionally sold small amounts of marijuana, rushed to the bathroom to flush a bag down the toilet. An officer followed and shot him in the head, killing him. Cole was unarmed. The officer claimed Cole made a “furtive” movement, but others present, including Cole’s fiancée, never heard any warning.
Cole had no prior criminal record, but police secured the warrant by falsely linking him to a different Trevon Cole with a criminal history in Texas. Despite the clear misidentification and Cole’s lack of threat, a coroner’s inquest cleared the officer, who had previously shot two other men, killing one. This episode of Collateral Damage, hosted by Radley Balko, examines how the courts have failed to protect the Fourth Amendment in drug cases, featuring interviews with constitutional law scholars, Cole’s fiancée, and the daughter she was carrying during the raid, now a teenager.
Transcript
Radley Balko: At the time Trevon Cole was shot and killed by a Las Vegas police officer, he and his fiancée Sequoia Pearce were sketching out plans for a life together. The couple was engaged, and she was 40 weeks pregnant with their first child.
Sequoia Pearce: We were high school sweethearts. I was 40 weeks pregnant, so my due date was any day.
Radley Balko: They had moved to Vegas from Los Angeles so Pearce could be closer to her mother. With a baby on the way, it seemed important to be close to family.
Sequoia Pearce: He was a family man. Like, he loved his mother. He was the person who got me more family-oriented — that’s what moved us to Vegas.
Radley Balko: Cole was 21 years old and worked at a “True Religion” clothing store. Pearce was just 20.
Sequoia Pearce: Trevon was just full of life. Like, he was full of life. Everyone knew him. He was very popular.
Radley Balko: On the night of June 11, 2010, Cole and Pearce were watching TV in their home. At around 9 p.m., their peaceful evening was abruptly interrupted.
Sequoia Pearce: We were hanging out, watching TV, laying in bed. We heard like an aggressive knock on the door. And then we heard like glass shatter. So we kind of like, felt like someone was coming in on us, and we didn’t know like if we were being robbed.
Radley Balko: The couple jumped from the bed. Cole soon realized that the men breaking into their home were the police.
Sequoia Pearce: He was like, “Babe, where, where’s my weed?” And I was like, “I don’t know.”
Radley Balko: Cole had a bag of marijuana, about 7 grams’ worth — a typical amount for personal use. At the time, in 2010, cannabis was legal in Nevada for medicinal purposes but not for recreational use.