STATE v. GEISLER5/11/1990
ng that the driver was injured to the point of needing immediate aid.
There are no cases that directly guide us in the application of the "emergency doctrine" standards under circumstances such as those present here. Persuasive, however, are certain precepts regarding the "emergency doctrine" that are applicable to this case.
It is clear that the officers had no actual evidence to support their conclusion of serious injury to the defendant, whom the officers had never seen before their entry, but whom they assumed to be the driver of the red Peugeot, within the house and, according to their testimony, in need of immediate medical assistance. Compare Thompson v. McManus, 512 F.2d 769 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1014, 95 S.Ct. 2421, 44 L.Ed.2d 683 (1975) (police justified in entering home
of woman assaulted in that home and who had struggled to the home of a neighbor, who called the police because there might be others injured inside); State v. Barone, 330 F.2d 543, 544 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 377 U.S. 1004, 84 S.Ct. 1940, 12 L.Ed.2d 1053 (1964) (entry justified where police heard screams in the middle of the night coming from within the home); People v. Kepi, 65 Ill. App.3d 327, 382 N.E.2d 642 (1978) (apartment door wide open at 2 a.m. and blood stains on floor justified belief that someone might be in need of immediate aid); Duquette v. Godbout, 471 A.2d 1359 (1984) (entry proper when police found distraught mother screaming and banging on apartment door, saying she believed her daughter was inside and that she had heard screaming within); see also cases cited in W. LaFave, supra, n. 23-33. The evidence in this case does not justify a reasonable belief that the defendant's medical condition manifested itself in such a traumatic fashion (e.g., heart attack, stroke, serious internal injuries) as would require the officers' immediate entry into the home.
The objective test that we formulated in State v. Klauss, supra, focuses on the belief of a reasonable, well trained police officer that, under the totality of the circumstances, the person inside the home is in need of immediate aid. Klauss provides a factual situation that clearly warrants application of the "emergency doctrine." In Klauss, the police had received information from several sources, including the defendant's girl friend, that the defendant was despondent, intoxicated, armed with either a shotgun or handgun, and possibly suicidal. They had information that a "gunshot had either been fired or that a shotgun had been activated by a pumping action." Id., 303. The defendant's housemates told the officers that they had seen the defendant leave the house but that" ` e could have come back by the time we went to the police station
and back.'" On the basis of all of this information, the police immediately set out in search of the defendant. On the basis of the totality of these circumstances, the trial court held, and this court affirmed, that the "emergency doctrine" justified entry because the police reasonably believed the defendant was in immediate need of aid, that the only purpose in entering the apartment was to protect the defendant and third parties, and that the defendant, believed to be armed and suicidal, had not yet been located and that it was reasonable to believe that he might be in the apartment. Id., 302-303.
The circumstances of the present case, however, do not justify a finding that such a reasonable belief existed. In employing an exception to a constitutional requirement such as the "emergency doctrine," courts> should not become mindless automatons that afford the judicial stamp of approval to each and every claim of emergency. " he exception m
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