I disagree....no knock searches can be very dangerous to police officers. I agree with that statement, but how does that relate to mine? Police who use flash-bangs on no-knock raids throw them before they can see whether anybody happens to be within lethal range of where the grenades happen to be thrown. How is that not a matter of luck?
Frankly, I'd like to see no-knock raids outlawed in all cases except hostage rescue, and severe limits placed on the evidence that can be gathered in no-knock raids [e.g. if police rescue a hostage, the hostage can give testimony against the kidnappers. If there's no hostage but police happen to find a drug lab, the evidence would be suppressed]. Unfortunately, some politicians like no-knock raids.
How could the cops find out if anyone who is in the range of maiming or killing them before they enter the apartment?
Know knock raids have a purpose and that is to catch them by using the element of surprise. If the dealers are alerted to the cops standing outside their doorway, they make a snap judgement of should they run or should they shoot the cops once they are through the door.
This know knock raid is based on information that is made available to them before hand. It is very tragic what happened to this lady but I can't see blaming the police for doing exactly what they were trained to do. If these cops knew ahead of time that their is a strong possibility that numerous weapons are inside of the apartment, then why make the raid more dangerous by knocking first and then entering....believe it or not, no knock raids probably save more lives and that includes the suspects as well.