Opinion ID: 164778
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Entry into the Apartment

Text: 13 [A]bsent exigent circumstances, the firm line at the entrance to the house may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant. Kirk v. Louisiana, 536 U.S. 635, 636, 122 S.Ct. 2458, 153 L.Ed.2d 599 (2002) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). We review the question of whether exigent circumstances justified a warrantless entry into a home de novo, evaluating the circumstances as they would have appeared to prudent, cautious and trained officers at the time. See United States v. Gutierrez-Hermosillo, 142 F.3d 1225, 1229 (10th Cir.1998); United States v. Davis, 290 F.3d 1239, 1243 (10th Cir.2002). In the instant case, we hold that the officers' entry into the apartment was justified by exigent circumstances, namely their need to guarantee the safety of themselves and others. 14 The Supreme Court has recognized several types of exigent circumstances that may justify a warrantless entry into a home, including the hot pursuit of a fleeing felon, the imminent destruction of evidence, the need to prevent a suspect's escape, or the risk of danger to police officers or other people inside or outside the home. Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 100, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990). 15 In risk of personal danger cases, the basic aspects of the exigent circumstances exception are (1) the officers must have reasonable grounds to believe that there is an immediate need to protect the lives or safety of themselves or others; (2) the search must not be motivated by an intent to arrest or seize evidence; and (3) there must be some reasonable basis, approaching probable cause, to associate the emergency with the place to be searched. Davis, 290 F.3d at 1242. 16 To be sure, our determination as to whether exigent circumstances existed will depend on the unique facts of the controversy before us. Id. Yet we are guided in our analysis by cases in which courts have held there to be exigent circumstances under analogous conditions. 17 In United States v. Reed, for example, police officers went to a suspect's home as part of a criminal investigation and saw a man sleeping on the couch with a sawed-off shotgun resting nearby. 935 F.2d 641, 642 (4th Cir.1991). The Fourth Circuit held that the officers had reasonable grounds to believe that they needed to enter the home in order to guarantee their own safety. Id. at 643. Standing at the threshold of Reed's home and uncertain about how many persons were present in the trailer, the officers in this case were faced with an inherently dangerous illegal weapon that could have ... possibly [been] used against them. Viewing the situation in its totality, the troopers could have reasonably found exigent circumstances. Id. 18 Similarly, in United States v. Burgos, the Eleventh Circuit held there were exigent circumstances to enter the defendant's home after officers observed boxes filled with weapons being shipped there. 720 F.2d 1520, 1526 (11th Cir.1983). The agents were faced with a house laden with arms and an unknown number of people inside.... Only by entering the house and searching for persons and weapons could the agents have control of all weapons which could be used against them or to effect an escape. Id. 19 Like Reed and Burgos, the officers in the instant case faced a situation in which there were firearms inside the home, it was unclear how many people were inside the home, and the circumstances gave rise to a reasonable fear that the firearms might be used against the officers or others. The officers had just broken up a heated argument in which a firearm had been brandished, one of the participants in that argument had defied police orders and stashed the gun in a rear area of the apartment, and the officers had no way of knowing if there were others in the apartment with access to the gun. 20 Under the circumstances of this case, we are satisfied that the officers had reasonable grounds to believe there was an immediate need to ensure their safety and the safety of others by guaranteeing that no one remained in the apartment. Further, as Officer Kawano testified, safety concerns (not an intent to seize evidence) motivated the officers' entry into the apartment, and the emergency was clearly associated with the location searched. The warrantless entry was therefore justified by exigent circumstances. Cf. Davis, 290 F.3d at 1242. 21 The Fourth Amendment does not require police officers to delay in the course of an investigation if to do so would gravely endanger their lives or the lives of others. Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 298-99, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967); see also United States v. Wicks, 995 F.2d 964, 970 (10th Cir.1993) ([O]fficers may ... conduct a warrantless search if they believe that their own lives or the lives of others are at risk.). In their attempt to subdue a chaotic armed struggle, the officers in this case were not limited to ordering the occupants whom they had seen out of the home and trusting their safety to the hope that there might be no one else inside who could use the gun stashed there against them.