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Argued October 24, 2001

This government appeal concerns an application of the general knock-and-announce statute, D.C. Code � 23-524 (a) (2001). A police officer, part of a team executing a search warrant at an apartment, waited forty-five seconds after first identifying his presence before forcibly entering the apartment. The trial court nonetheless suppressed evidence seized during the search because only after thirty seconds of that time had elapsed did the officer announce the authority and purpose for the police being there, i.e., the search warrant – the remaining fifteen seconds being too short, in the judge’s view, to amount to a constructive refusal of admittance. We conclude that in the total circumstances of the case, including the antecedent thirty seconds during which the presumed occupants learned the identity of the person knocking, the police reasonably believed that they had been denied admittance to the dwelling and thus were entitled to use force to enter.

I. The Suppression Hearing

 
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