A PIT maneuver here was not excessive force. Defendant repeatedly refused to stop and even after attempted PIT maneuvers kept fleeing. United States v. Damons, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118141 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 2, 2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\nDefendant contends that deputies seized him when LeCompte performed the PIT maneuver but that the seizure was unlawful because the PIT maneuver violated the Fourth Amendment in that it constituted excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Doc. 37 at 29. “The Fourth Amendment provides the right to be free from excessive force in the course of an investigatory stop or other seizure of the person.” Sharp v. Fisher, 532 F.3d 1180, 1183 (11th Cir. 2008). “Terminating a car chase by striking a fleeing vehicle constitutes a ‘seizure.’ ” Id. “Whether effecting a seizure violates the Constitution turns on the question of whether striking the vehicle was ‘objectively reasonable.’ ” Id. (quoting Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 381 (2007) “In determining whether [LeCompte’s] actions were ‘objectively reasonable,’ the court must consider the risk of bodily harm [his] actions in attempting the PIT maneuver posed to [Defendant] in light of the threat to the public that [LeCompte] was trying to eliminate, from the perspective of a ‘reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with 20\/20 vision of hindsight.’ ” Id. (quoting Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396 (1989)). “Much like the factors [the courts] weigh when evaluating a use of deadly force, [the courts] consider these factors when evaluating any other use of force: (1) the severity of the suspect’s crime, (2) whether the suspect poses an immediate threat of harm to others, (3) whether the suspect is actively resisting arrest or trying to flee, (4) the need for the use of force, (5) the relationship between the need for force and the amount of force used, and (6) how much injury was inflicted.” Wade v. Daniels, 36 F.4th 1318, 1325 (11th Cir. 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Considering these factors, the undersigned finds that it was objectively reasonable for LeCompte to use the PIT maneuver to attempt to stop Defendant. Defendant had not complied with multiple deputies signaling to him to stop by their sirens and blue lights. The deputies had information that Defendant had a bench warrant from Habersham County for failing to appear in court for a felon in possession of a firearm charge, and they had information that his ex-girlfriend and another witness accused him of very recently threatening them and discharging a firearm, thus indicating that he continued to be armed and a threat to others. LeCompte, who was certified and trained in PIT maneuvers\u2014and even taught other officers how to conduct them, attempted to perform the PIT maneuver at a low speed at a time when there was not a lot of traffic on the road, thus minimizing the risk of danger to Defendant, the other officers, and the travelling public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, the force used to perform the maneuver was insufficient to actually stop, i.e., seize, Defendant as he was able to continue driving for miles thereafter, at speeds of approximately 100 miles per hour. \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A PIT maneuver here was not excessive force. Defendant repeatedly refused to stop and even after attempted PIT maneuvers kept fleeing. United States v. Damons, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118141 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 2, 2026):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excessive-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64160,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64159\/revisions\/64160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}