CA6: Excessive force and qualified immunity; officer responding to threat of force

“The record here demonstrates the defendant officers’ use of deadly force was objectively reasonable. Three of the four officers surrounding McShann’s vehicle testified that when McShann woke, he was compliant or mostly compliant with their order that he put his hands up. (Officer O’Neal testified that he was not sure whether McShann put his hands up.) But then, after looking back and forth at the officers surrounding the vehicle for a few seconds, all four officers testified that McShann grabbed his gun. At this point, Officer Howard perceived a serious and deadly threat to himself and his fellow officers and took aim at McShann’s “center mass”—necessarily taking his vision away from the gun itself. While that process was playing out, the other three officers agree that McShann “swung” the gun towards Officer Knight at the driver-side window. Officer Knight testified that he feared for his safety once McShann swung the gun towards him. At that point, both Officers Knight and Howard used deadly force. [¶] Given these unrebutted facts, we conclude that both Officers Howard and Knight acted reasonably to stop a serious threat of deadly force, and the district court correctly granted them qualified immunity.” Jordan v. Howard, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 3026 (6th Cir. Feb. 3, 2021).*