Thread by @bradheath

Police sent a SWAT team to conduct a search. They knew their suspect was already in custody. When a woman didn't unlock the door quickly enough, they threw a flash-bang into the living room, near a 2-year-old, starting a fire.

8th Cir.: And that was excessive force.

8th Cir.: Police can't just throw a flash-bang grenade into the house because they don't know who might be inside. "Whether the use of the flash-bang grenade here was reasonable is not a close question."

8th Cir.: "The argument that the SWAT team was justified in using a flash-bang grenade because they did not know for certain it was unnecessary is precisely backwards; it makes using that dangerous level of force the default."

8th Cir.: "This type of 'flash-bang first, ask questions later' approach runs headlong into the Fourth Amendment. Law enforcement officers like the SWAT team members here need an actual justification for using a flash-bang grenade."

Police said they needed to use a flash-bang because, when the woman didn't open the door fast enough, they had lost "the element of surprise."

8th Cir.: What are you talking about? The warrant required you to knock.

8th Cir.: No qualified immunity, either. "Only the plainly incompetent officer announces his presence at a house with no known dangerous people and then decides to throw in a flash-bang grenade because the occupants know he is there."

Here's the decision: ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/19/07/1…