NBC 4 Washington, (September 20, 2018) reported that a man protecting his daughter from what he thought was a home invasion shot two police officers who mistakenly entered his apartment in District Heights, Maryland, Prince George's County's police chief says.
The officers and their nine-member special operations team went to the complex in the 2700 block of Lorring Drive to serve a warrant about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. A confidential informant told police a drug dealer lived there, but the resident was actually a father who didn't know officers were trying to get in his home.
The team knocked on the door of the top-level unit and announced they were there, but no one answered. Despite the silence, the team had a feeling someone might be inside the apartment, so they used a device to open the door, according to police.
Inside the apartment, they found the father armed with a shotgun. Police say the man fired a single shot when the door opened, striking two officers.
Another officer returned fire, but no one was hit.
The officers were flown to a shock trauma center in Baltimore.
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It's 10:30 PM and you've fallen asleep while watching TV. Suddenly your door is battered open and armed men rush into your home... what would you do?
The Prince George's County's Police Chief seems to think that the father in this case was within his rights to shoot the people breaking into his home - even though those people were the police. Although the NBC 4 report doesn't specifically say, we might assume that the police were not wearing normal police uniforms (?)
This raises the question, do citizens have a right under the law to resist with force an unlawful arrest by police or actions taken by police with a defective warrant?
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