N.D.Ga.: Two people in a knife fight, but only one with knife, didn’t mean both couldn’t be handcuffed to sort it out

Officers responding to a knife fight outside an apartment in the rain at night could handcuff both men. Just because one had a knife didn’t mean he was the only aggressor. The officers could handcuff both to just maintain the status quo. United States v. Aguirre-Sanchez, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174677 (N.D.Ga. Nov. 23, 2015):

Although Hernandez may have initially and superficially appeared to be the aggressor because he was holding the knife, the deputies were not required to act on that assumption rather than securing the men and the scene while they investigated what had actually happened, including the reasonable alternative scenarios that Defendant—who remained standing on the deck in the dark and the rain holding a beer in his hand with his purported attacker nearby—was the aggressor and Hernandez was defending himself or that the men had engaged in mutual combat. “As the Supreme Court has recognized, a police officer performing his lawful duties may direct and control—to some extent—the movements and location of persons nearby, even persons that the office may have no reason to suspect of wrongdoing.” Hudson v. Hall, 231 F.3d 1289, 1297 (11th Cir. 2000) (citing Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 415, 117 S. Ct. 882, 137 L. Ed. 2d 41 (1997) and Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 702-03, 101 S. Ct. 2587, 69 L. Ed. 2d 340 (1981)).