'No idea what lurks': Former officer reflects on dangers of serving papers

Defense attorney Lee Turner spoke with WRAL's Renee Chou and reflected on his time as a police officer and how officers are trained to deal with situations where a suspect's response can range from civil to deadly.

A Wake County deputy was shot Wednesday morning while serving eviction papers at River Birch at Town Center Apartments off Old Wake Forest Road. Turner, who served as a patrol officer with Raleigh police for nearly 10 years, said standard procedure entails the officer standing to the side of the door to knock due to the uncertainty of the moment.

"You're the one that has no idea what lurks on the other side of the door," Turner said. "If that other person inside the apartment didn't want to be arrested or just had it in his mind that he was going to shoot anybody that came in, they have the jump on you from the start."

Wake sheriff says deputy shot on duty is in good spirits and slowly recovering

"One of the most dangerous jobs that an officer will do is the service of a warrant such as what the deputy was doing this morning," Turner said. "It really depends on the nature of the warrant and what intelligence you have about what may be inside the apartment and what you're aware of prior to approaching the residence."

Practices like no-knock warrants have become points of debate among those who oversee officers and deputies.

"You hear the call today to eliminate no-knock warrants," Turner said. "This is what happens sometimes in those dangerous situations if we didn't have a no-knock warrant. With an eviction paper, they probably felt it was a typical-type thing unless they had other information available to them."

The deputy was rushed to WakeMed for surgery with what sources told WRAL News was a serious injury to his hip.

"None of these are really run-of-the-mill because you have people that aren't compliant," Turner said.