The real question/problem that most people here seem to have is with the method of entry to serve this warrant. Everyone wants to know why this sort of 'dynamic entry' is needed. And, to reiterate, this was apparently NOT a dreaded 'no knock' warrant. The police, if they followed proper procedure, loudly knocked on the door and loudly announced their presence, and gave a reasonable period of time for the person inside to respond. They then forced entry into the house and attempted to secure it.
So, why is this sort of thing necessary?
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79119&highlight=James+Beck
Now, there were problems with the eventual outcome of that situation, but the pertinent fact is this: they
attempted to do warrant service the old fashioned way, by walking up to the door like gentlemen, talking to the homeowner and informing him that he was, alas, under arrest, and would he please place his hands behind his back...
Yeah, well, that didn't work out so well. Long story short, the suspect ended up pulling out a gun and shooting at the officers and killing one, prompting a massive standoff which placed the whole neighborhood at risk.
EDIT: I did a quick web search on this and found that they also might have tried another tactic, that of surrounding the house and calling on the phone for him to come out. He declined, and ended up shooting. Different idea, same outcome.
I could, I am quite certain, flood this thread with examples of where non-dynamic warrant service like this has earned quite a few police officers, quite a few suspects, and quite a few innocent bystanders untimely funerals. All it would take is a few minutes worth of work on Google. I'm equally certain that we could also flood the thread with examples of where police officers killed the homeowner/occupants in the process of conducting the entry. What we cannot do is easily determine how many dynamic entries were conducted without any harm to anyone, but I assure you the number is astounding. ONE of my PD's tactical teams did several
hundred entries like this last year alone. And that is one of several teams. None of them made the news. No one died.
The key fact is that dynamic entries are far safer for everyone- officer, suspect, neighbors, occupants- in situations where it is thought likely that the suspect will resist the service of the warrant. The key is in the threat assessment, since it is obviously inappropriate to do this sort of entry for each and every warrant. The potentially lethal consequences of being too lax, however, are well known to police officers.
As to why they didn't arrest him elsewhere, well, let's think about this. He is known to be armed. Do we take him down at work, where there are plenty of potential victims and hostages? No? How about in his car, where he can go on a high-speed chase and really put a few lives at risk? How about in his front yard, where he can retreat back into his house where we can have the armed standoff we've been trying to avoid, or dive into a car, or go running through the quiet residential neighborhood popping off rounds? Oh, we should have him surrounded? Really? Crossfire, anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
The fact is that no arrest technique is perfect for all situations. Sometimes you DO take him down at work. Sometimes you DO box him in with cruisers and haul him out of his car. Sometimes you DO get him as he's pumping gas at the local Stop-n-Rob.
And yes, sometimes you DO kick down his door pursuant to warrant and take him while he's in his jammies, because it is safer for everyone this way, especially him.
You'll get shootings out of all of these scenarios, too. If the police end up blowing him away outside of a crowded club where he was DJing and place countless others at risk, I'm sure we'll all be screeching that they should have kicked in his door while he was asleep. Heck, take him in a traffic stop and he scoots off and blasts a carload of nuns on their way to confession and I know we will be. And God help the Public Information Officer if he takes and kills a hostage. How could the cops let that happen?
These are the realities of policing. For those of you who cannot get past the WOD, consider that the same realities present themselves with perpetrators of good old fashioned Common Law crimes, too.
Mike