[cannonfire]

I think the officers are to blame but I am going to play devil's advocate for a minute.

Who is saying that the cops did not announce themselves? The only witnesses they would have are neighbors who would more than likely have been sleeping, so they would not have heard the announcement.

So let's assume they didn't announce because they were hoping to catch the real criminal opening the door. From the article it says that the criminal's motorcycle was parked across from Scott's apartment, so they had reason to believe that he was in that apartment. Now assuming they did not have a warrant to enter the apartment, they would not be able to legally enter unless invited in or the criminal were to answer the door; otherwise they would have entered right away. So perhaps the officers were expecting to see the criminal but all they see is a gun pointing at them. Training and the law says they react the way they did. All they know is that they had a threat on the other side of the door, which they expected to be an attempted murder suspect. They did not know it was the wrong person until after the fact.

Now my real beliefs. I don't think you should answer the door with the muzzle pointing out the door when you open it. You never know who is there. If it is a threat you have your firearm in your hand and it takes a split second to bring gun up to engage the threat. Also, Scott should have questioned the people before ever opening the door.

The police are to blame for creating the situation. They assumed the criminal was in there without any real intel. They should have been extremely loud with their announcements of being police and had someone watching the windows in case their suspect tries to flee. But they should not have been knocking unless they had eyes on surveillance that the suspect was at some point in that apartment and not where he parked his motorcycle.