[caveat emptor]

I guess only murderers are apprehended that way, not petty drug dealers/users.

Well, this wasn't a case of attempting to apprehend just a "petty drug dealer/user" . They knew that the perp might be armed. From my comment and the article to which I linked:

Law enforcement officials were familiar with Thometheva, who had prior drug and firearm related arrests.

Here's another article from AJC:
Terrell justified the use of the no-knock warrant by telling the AJC that Thometheva, of Cornelia, had possessed weapons including an AK-47 assault rifle, during a previous drug arrest. Random photo of AK-47.

[Blackyce]

So they knew he might be armed from prior arrests, but they didn’t even undertake the minimal amount effort it would have taken to know whether the guy was in the home? What if they’d stormed the place and there were 4-5 armed guys there? They wouldn’t have had a clue. It was stupid on every level.

[Rusty0604]

All the more reason they should have made sure that no one else was in the house before busting in, don’t you think?

[Neidermeyer]

blah blah ... AK47 ... blah blah ...

*******************************

I am quite certain that if this person had an “automatic Kalishnikov” he would have been arrested for not paying the taxes on it ... I’d be willing to bet EVERYTHING I have that it was a “SKS47” or possibly a SKS74 ... with the first “s” meaning SEMI ,,, It may be a minor point , easily attributed to stupidity on the part of the reporting agency but it happens ALL the time ,, it is intentional to blur the distinction between semi auto’s and full auto weapons.