United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 23-2259 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MICHAEL A. DAVIS, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division. No. 22-CR-22 — Philip P. Simon, Judge. ____________________

SUBMITTED SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 ∗ — DECIDED OCTOBER 7, 2024 ____________________

Before SYKES, Chief Judge, and ST. EVE and LEE, Circuit Judges. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge. On February 22, 2022, police officers responded to a chilling 911 call from a fifteen-year-old in

∗ We granted the joint motion to waive oral argument, and the appeal is therefore submitted on the briefs and the record. Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2)(C). 2 No. 23-2259 Gary, Indiana. The teenage caller reported that Michael Davis had threatened to kill her mother, was outside their home, and had an assault rifle in his car. She urged emergency dis- patch to hurry, and relayed updates to the 911 operator as her family sought safety at the local police station. Within ten minutes of the 911 call, police caught up with Davis, who was following the family’s minivan. Officers ar- rested him and searched his vehicle, recovering a loaded, semi-automatic shotgun with an obliterated serial number. Davis was subsequently charged with possessing a fire- arm illegally, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). After unsuc- cessfully moving to suppress the shotgun, he pleaded guilty but reserved the right to appeal the suppression ruling. Before us, Davis renews his contention that the warrant- less search of his vehicle violated the Fourth Amendment, re- quiring the suppression of the shotgun. Because the search falls squarely within the search incident to arrest and automo- bile exceptions to the warrant requirement, we affirm the dis- trict court’s denial of his motion. I. Background In the wee hours of the morning of February 22, 2022, Mi- chael Davis began beating and kicking at the door of his for- mer girlfriend, A.C., and her four children. Davis went to A.C.’s home to pick up some clothes he had left in the back of her minivan. A.C. answered the door but refused to return the clothes, demanding Davis first give her back some jewelry. Angered, Davis picked up a brick and ges- tured toward her minivan. A.C. called the police. An officer responded, declined to facilitate a property exchange, and in- structed A.C. to file a report. No. 23-2259 3

Davis left shortly after the police did, but his behavior con- tinued to escalate. A.C. was pregnant, and Davis sent her a text message threatening to kill her baby. Fearful of Davis’s increasing hostility, A.C. called off their plan to reconvene at the house to exchange the clothes and jewelry. She also in- structed her children to call 911 if Davis came back. Undeterred, Davis returned to the house as A.C. was pre- paring her kids for school. At 7:12 a.m., A.C.’s 15-year-old daughter called 911. Audibly distressed, she told the public safety officer that “there’s a man here and he’s trying to kill us.” She urged the officer to “please hurry up.” A.C.’s daugh- ter explained that Davis had threatened her mom and had an assault rifle in his car. She described the clothes Davis was wearing and gave the officer his name. She then let the 911 operator know that her family was leaving home for the po- lice station in a brown Honda Odessey. She also told the of- ficer that Davis drove a tan GMC Terrain. Sergeant Manuel responded to the 911 call. Dispatch had informed him via radio and through written