Palma v. Johns

When officers are called for wellness checks or other non-criminal calls, this Court looks at what the officer learned and observed about the situation before the officer even engaged with anyone on the scene;” in this case officer’s asserted belief that he was arriving at a volatile scene was not supported; “even if the person’s hands are not visible—and even if he appears to be suspiciously reaching for something in his clothing—these facts would not lead a reasonable officer to believe that the person posed an immediate threat of serious harm;” where decedent was not acting aggressively toward officer, using deadly force against him was unreasonable; if decedent was 10 to 15 feet from officer and not moving, he did not pose an imminent threat of harm; if duration of incident was 8 – 10 minutes and situation never escalated, use of lethal force would be unreasonable; “only in extreme cases have we found that an officer reasonably used lethal force against a mentally ill person;” court takes into account readily available alternatives in determining whether deadly force was reasonable; multiple shots fired at decedent after he was incapacitated were unreasonable; reversing qualified immunity for officer.