From a practical standpoint, most jurisdictions have a judge and prosecutor on telephone standby 24/7. A peace officer contacts the prosecutor, presents the evidence justifying the search, the prosecutor then adds the judge to the conversation. Upon being convinced a warrant is justified, the judge signs it and faxes it to the prosecutor. Most larger departments have fax capability built into their data terminals in the cars. In a situation like this, even if the police didn’t want to use the exigent circumstances exception, I suspect that within 20 minutes of a homeowner saying “get a warrant” they’d hand him one. I also suspect he’d have company waiting on his front porch during those 20 minutes.
You’re almost certainly correct. I have no doubt that law enforcement knew exactly what the legal parameters were.