United States v. Ramirez, 523 U.S. 65 (1998)

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OCTOBER TERM, 1997

Syllabus

UNITED STATES v. RAMIREZ

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit

No. 96-1469. Argued January 13, 1998—Decided March 4, 1998

Based on a reliable confidential informant's statement that he had seen a person he believed to be Alan Shelby, a dangerous escaped prisoner, at respondent's home, and on a federal agent's subsequent observation of a man resembling Shelby outside that home, the Government obtained a "no-knock" warrant to enter and search the home. Having gathered in the early morning hours to execute the warrant, officers announced over a loud speaker system that they had a search warrant. Simultaneously, they broke a single window in respondent's garage and pointed a gun through the opening, hoping thereby to dissuade occupants from rushing to the weapons stash the informant had told them was in the garage. Awakened by the noise and fearful that his house was being burglarized, respondent grabbed a pistol and fired it into the garage ceiling. When the officers shouted "police," respondent surrendered and was taken into custody. After he admitted that he had fired the weapon, that he owned both that gun and another in the house, and that he was a convicted felon, respondent was indicted on federal charges of being a felon in possession of firearms. The District Court granted his motion to suppress evidence regarding weapons possession, ruling that the officers had violated both the Fourth Amendment and 18 U. S. C. § 3109 because there were "insufficient exigent circumstances" to justify their destruction of property in executing the warrant. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.

Held:

1. The Fourth Amendment does not hold officers to a higher standard when a "no-knock" entry results in the destruction of property. It is obvious from the holdings in Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U. S. 927, 934, 936, and Richards v. Wisconsin, 520 U. S. 385, that such an entry's lawfulness does not depend on whether property is damaged in the course of the entry. Under Richards, a no-knock entry is justified if police have a "reasonable suspicion" that knocking and announcing their presence before entering would "be dangerous or futile, or . . . inhibit the effective investigation of the crime." Id., at 394. Whether such a reasonable suspicion exists does not depend on whether police must destroy property in order to enter. This is not to say that the Fourth Amendment does not speak to the manner of executing a warrant.

65

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