The St. Paul home where police fatally shot two dogs last week was the subject of a “no knock” search warrant because Minneapolis police had information that a resident was involved in drug dealing, carried a semiautomatic handgun and has a “violent criminal history,” according to an affidavit made available by the court Tuesday.
An informant told Minneapolis police that Larry Lee Arman, 40, “is a known gang member” and “keeps two very” aggressive pit bulls “loose in the house for interior protection,” the search warrant affidavit said.
Arman and his fiancee, Camille Perry, said Arman got out of a gang about 20 years ago and their dogs were family pets, not aggressive. They said Arman doesn’t carry a gun or sell drugs.
The St. Paul police SWAT team assisted with execution of the warrant about 7 a.m. July 9, and an officer shot the two dogs in the North End home when “they were acting in an aggressive manner,” a St. Paul police spokesman has said.
Arman and Perry have said the dogs were sleeping by the front door and did nothing more than bark when police used a ram to break down the door. Perry, who is eight months pregnant, has said she ran to her two children who were sleeping nearby and threw herself over them to protect them. The couple said they feared they or their children would be shot.
The informant’s statements that led to the search warrant were “complete lies,” Perry said Tuesday.
Police found suspected marijuana in a metal grinder, a glass water pipe and $997 in cash, according to the search warrant receipt. Arman has said he smokes marijuana recreationally, but doesn’t sell it. He said the cash was from his business — he tows vehicles, buys cars, fixes them up and sells them.
Officers did not arrest anyone when they executed the warrant. Minneapolis police said last week their investigation is ongoing. The Hennepin County attorney’s office hadn’t received a case to consider charges as of Tuesday.
St. Paul police routinely conduct an investigation when an officer discharges a firearm, and that investigation is ongoing, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
The warrant, which a judge granted, was to search Arman and Perry’s St. Paul home on East Maryland Avenue, near Jackson Street, and three cars. The affidavit gives the following information:
Minneapolis police received information from a “Confidential Reliable Informant,” or CRI, that drugs were being sold and stored in the St. Paul house and the seller was known as “Elbow.” The CRI reported “Elbow” was using a newer Pontiac, and older models of an Oldsmobile and Chevrolet Caprice to distribute drugs in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.
Police determined “Elbow” was Arman and the CRI identified him from a photo. Within the previous 72 hours, the informant observed “a large quantity of marijuana” inside Arman’s home and it “was packaged for street sale,” the July 8 affidavit stated
The CRI reported seeing Arman carrying a handgun within the last week and said Arman had it for his protection while making drug deals. Arman has assault, weapon and drug convictions and is barred from possessing a firearm.
Arman last got out of prison a decade ago for a felony assault conviction. He had earlier convictions for drug possession and possession of a pistol by a felon. He was convicted of misdemeanor DWI in 2011.
Police needed to enter the house unannounced to serve the warrant for the safety of officers and to preserve evidence, the affidavit said.
Arman said Tuesday that his last affiliation with a gang was “probably when I was 20-some years old. I still say I’m a GD, but it’s God’s Disciple. … They’re just bringing up old stuff, trying to make me look bad.” GD can also stand for Gangster Disciples, a gang formed in Chicago in the late 1960s.
Perry said she’s never seen Arman with a weapon in the 10 years she has been with him. Arman also said he doesn’t touch guns because of his felony record and questioned the informant’s account that he carries a gun, “Why wasn’t one found when police tore up every inch of my house?”
Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.
