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.
In an outrageous opinion, court finds officer entitled to summary judgment; deputy sheriff had fired nineteen shots at Bryant’s car during high speed chase and then rammed Bryant’s car after it left the road, second officer Gillem then approached Bryant lying on ground, Bryant put both hands in the air then placed them on his back, Gillem then put his pistol in his left hand, put his knee on Bryant’s back, reached for the suspect’s hands with his right hand, and fired into Gillem’s shoulder with his firearm in his left hand; court relies on declaration by Texas Ranger expert who was not pre
Clearly established that officers may not shoot a secured or incapacitated person”; “established that armed suspects can be secured even before an officer disarms them”; “simply being armed is insufficient to justify deadly force." Sok Kong Trustee for Map Kong v. City of Burnsville, 960 F.3d 985 (8th Cir. 2020) (officers entitled to qualified immunity where suspect was armed with knife and running towards bystanders in busy parking lot and ignored commands to drop knife, although suspect appeared to be under influence of drugs and did not threaten officers.
Clearly established … that simply being armed is insufficient to justify deadly force.