CA9: Exigent circumstances justified warrantless entry into Navajo’s hogan

Defendant was arrested for sexual assault on an Indian reservation. The warrantless entry into his hogan was justified by exigent circumstances. United States v. McCabe, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 12549 (9th Cir. July 2, 2014)*:

Here, the police officers were led to the site by the victim, who had been shot in the head. The district court properly concluded that the police officers had probable cause to arrest McCabe and that exigent circumstance justified their warrantless entry into the hogan. It was evening, and the remote area was dark, save for the lights from the police cars. Approaching the hogan with guns drawn, the police knocked and announced their presence in Navajo and English. They heard noises inside but no response to their calls. The police saw bloodstains on the side of the door, on a chair, and on the ground directly outside the hogan and did not know the condition of the occupant of the hogan. They reasonably believed the victim’s statements that the occupant of the hogan had shot him and was still armed with a weapon that he could turn on the officers or others. See United States v. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d 890, 894 (9th Cir. 1985) (affirming warrantless entry where officers reasonably believed defendant had explosives “and was in an agitated and violent state” based on uncorroborated statements by a witness who said defendant had threatened him with a pistol). Given “the remoteness” of the hogan, “the late night hour,” and the distance to a magistrate and the police station, it was “fair to assume that a telephonic warrant would have taken quite some time to secure.” Echegoyen, 799 F.2d at 1280. “Under these circumstances, … the delay associated with obtaining a telephonic warrant would have unduly increased the risk … that the officers reasonably believed to be [present].” Id. (second and third alterations in original) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Regardless of the condition of the victim who accompanied the officers to the hogan, the totality of the circumstances gave rise to the officers’ objectively reasonable belief that the entry was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons, render assistance, or to prevent “some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts.” Fisher, 558 F.3d at 1075 (quotation marks and citation omitted). As the district court found, “[e]nsuring that the gunman was no longer a danger to the public or the police themselves was of paramount importance.” This case is not like United States v. Gooch, 6 F.3d 673, 676 (9th Cir. 1993), where the defendant was asleep in a tent and no one had been injured. See Ortiz-Sandoval v. Clarke, 323 F.3d 1165, 1172 (9th Cir. 2003).