Case v. Montana · ¶23

Case counters that only the police entry itself created a “likely danger.” Brief for Case 45. His argument turns on the prospect of suicide-by-cop. As noted earlier, Case had once before acted in a way seemingly designed to provoke a lethal police response, as the officers knew. See supra, at 111. And J. H. told the officers that Case had threatened to “shoot them all too” if they came to the scene. Supra, at 110. So the “main risk the officers objectively faced,” Case posits, was that “their very entry would induce” a shootout, leading to a “suicide-by-cop.” Brief for Case 18. And indeed, Case contends, the officers knew that: Why else would they have “waited roughly 40 minutes after their arrival” before entering his home? Id., at 43. Case concludes that if the officers had only left well enough alone, nothing would have happened.

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