Nonsense. The police had not established the slightest indication that a situation (e.g. hostages about to be killed, armed criminals preparing for an assault) existed that might require such tactics.
And, in any case, they did not have a warrant for surprise armed entry, and lied about that fact when the investigation began. Those facts in and of themselves are sufficient to throw them under the jail.
If you wait until hostages are taken you've already let the situation get out of control and greatly increased the chances of someone dying.
The statistics say that an overwhelming show of force in high risk situations is most likely to to result in the least people being hurt. This was a high risk situation because of the high value of the drugs involved.
And, in any case, they did not have a warrant for surprise armed entry, and lied about that fact when the investigation began. Those facts in and of themselves are sufficient to throw them under the jail.
They didn't perform a surprise entry. They only rushed in after the mother-in-law started screaming about them being out there. It wasn't unreasonable for her to scream when armed men were approaching her house, even if it did say police on what they were wearing. However, her yelling made it clear that everyone in the house knew they were out there. At that point they either needed to rush in and quickly get control of the scene, or back down and risk a hostage situation or having to later go in against prepared armed criminals.
In reality that wasn't going to happen because they people were the innocent victims of the drug ring's plans going awry. However, the police really couldn't have known that.
They didn't need a special warrant for what they did, because what they did was the result of the unfortunate way things went down.
If they hadn't been spotted they could have surrounded the house, and then had officers go an knock at the door, present the warrant, and then quickly take control of the scene. Unfortunately, they were spotted, she screamed and yelled, and they had to make a split second decision how to react.