Unintended consequences of police officer firing a gun explained. Irick v. City of Philadephia, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40496 (E.D. Pa. May 19, 2008):<\/p>\n
The Fourth Amendment does not protect against unintended consequences of government action. Brower v. County of Inyo<\/em><\/a>, 489 U.S. 593, 596 (1989). In order for a seizure to occur, the detention or taking must be willful; an unknowing act cannot be a “seizure” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Id.<\/em> Specifically, in a police shooting, there is no violation of an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights if the police officer did not intend the bullet to bring the individual within the officer’s control. Troublefield v. City of Harrisburg<\/em>, 789 F. Supp. 160, 166 (M.D. Pa. 1992).<\/p>\n
However, a seizure nonetheless occurs “when an unintended person is the object of detention, so long as the means of detention are intentionally applied to that person. Berg v. County of Allegheny<\/em>, 219 F.3d 261, 269 (3d Cir. 2000) (citing Brower<\/em>, 489 U.S. at 596; Medeiros v. O’Connell<\/em>, 150 F.3d 164, 169 (2d Cir. 1998); Rucker v. Harford County<\/em>, 946 F.2d 278, 281 (4th Cir. 1991); Landol-Rivera v. Cruz Cosme<\/em>, 906 F.2d 791, 796 (1st Cir. 1990)). The Third Circuit Court of Appeals explained this principle by way of the following example: “if a police officer fires his gun at a fleeing robbery suspect and the bullet inadvertently strikes an innocent bystander, there has been no Fourth Amendment seizure. If, on the other hand, the officer fires his gun directly at the innocent bystander in the mistaken belief that the bystander is the robber, then a Fourth Amendment seizure has occurred.” Id.<\/em> (citations omitted). Thus, our Court of Appeals has drawn a fine line between intentional shooting where the target’s identity is mistaken, and intentional shooting where the target is missed and a non-target is hit. The former is a seizure, the latter is not. Id.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading