David B. Salmons, an assistant solicitor general arguing the government's appeal, said the question was whether the officers' entry was reasonable under the "totality of the circumstances," a test he called the "hallmark" of the Supreme Court's approach to applying the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches.
He appealed, arguing that because the officers' entry into his home was illegal, he was permitted to use force to prevent them from coming inside.
Then, at 7 53 p.m. Eastern time, Richard Kornfeld, the lead communications officer for entry, descent and landing, announced: "Touchdown signal detected".
After hearing a disturbance inside an apartment the man had gone into, an officer forced entry, Koval said.
In court documents, Sheehan argues that the officers' second entry unnecessarily escalated a volatile situation and that officers should have waited for backup instead of forcing their way back into her room.
"Officers forced entry to the flat and found the body of a man aged in his 50s.
Mr. Banks argued that he had not refused to open the door, but rather was in the shower and did not hear the police, making the officers' rapid entry all the more unreasonable in his view.
The parole officer's entries about Thomas Trantino's new female companion were bland, with no hint that the officer knew of her convictions and prison sentences since the mid-1990's for forgery in Florida and bank robbery in Newark, as well as parole violations for drug abuse.
While video showed officers attempting to kick down the front door of the apartment building where Graham lived, it is unclear how officers gained entry to the teen's grandmother's apartment, where he was shot.
