Deadly Force

Law was clearly established that officer could not shoot person with psychiatric disability in his own home who was incapacitated and no longer posed a threat, even though he had previously been armed: “the suspect’s possession of a weapon at some point in the incident does not provide an officer with carte blanche to use deadly force”; officer’s conduct violated Fourth Amendment but did not “shock the conscience,” thus did not justify substantive due process award to deceased’s father for his liberty interest in the companionship and society of his son.

Rejecting claim that officers created situation that ultimately led to subject’s death by failing to make a plan for the encounter, failing to secure knife block in kitchen, and questioning subject aggressively, provoking his violent resistance; such actions did not violate Fourth Amendment and did not render officers’ subsequent use of force unreasonable; court distinguishes earlier cases where officer’s unreasonable actions created situation where deadly force became essentially inevitable.

Officer not entitled to summary judgment on use of deadly force without warning where decedent was arrested for minor offense and jury could find decedent posed no threat of serious physical harm or death to officers; resisting arrest alone is not enough to justify use of deadly force; assuming facts in light favorable to plaintiff, shooting decedent without warning who was being arrested for minor offense after he struggled with officers and grabbed at taser to avoid repeated stunning, but never gained control of it, was “‘so obviously at the very core of what the Fourth Amendment prohibit

Police responded to a call for an alleged shooting, which turned out to be a “false swatting call,” a malicious prank by someone not from the address in question; resident exited the home and officer claimed he thought he saw resident reaching for a gun and fatally shot him; court rules jury could find resident was unarmed and not threatening and denies qualified immunity to officer; nothing in videotape indisputably contradicted those findings.

Officer shot and killed naked unarmed man under circumstances, taken in the light most favorably to plaintiff, that defendant admits would violate Fourth Amendment; decedent had physically pummeled one officer and was not subdued by a taser and was advancing on second officer; circumstances did not place unconstitutionality of second officer firing “beyond debate,” thus he was entitled to qualified immunity.

Even though officer shot suspect after suspect threw knife at him, shooting was justified because suspect was bent on harming officer and might have had other weapons or physically assaulted officer with his body.

Opinion begins with very quotable and helpful dicta concerning pretextual stops; officer not entitled to qualified immunity for shooting driver where material factual disputes existed; clearly established for qualified immunity purposes that using deadly force against unarmed, albeit non-compliant, driver held in choke hold in parked car would be Fourth Amendment violation; although defendant officer claimed he had a reasonable fear that driver was armed, “[shooting officer] could see if [driver] was reaching for a gun, as could the other officers outside the vehicle, yet none of them—inclu

Objectively reasonable for officer to use deadly force against youth who was running in his general direction, fleeing from other officers, holding a gun by the barrel in his hand.

Use of deadly force was objectively unreasonable where motorist fleeing police traffic stop had passed by officer when officer fired and officer and driver were alone on a dirt road; officers are “on notice that the use of deadly force is unreasonable when a reasonable officer would have perceived that the threat had passed.

Officer acted reasonably in deciding to shoot subject when subject pulled gun from waistband or pocket; even though subject had dropped gun before officer fired, officer’s decision to fire preceded dropping of gun and actual firing was less than a second after subject pulled out gun.