{"id":9750,"date":"2013-11-08T09:04:36","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T09:04:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T09:04:36","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=9750","title":{"rendered":"CA4: Shooting unarmed man who posed no threat denied qualified immunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officers were called to a domestic disturbance, and they approached plaintiff\u2019s house in the dark without sirens and saw him come out with a shotgun pointing down. They shot him without warning. They were not entitled to qualified immunity in a 1983 case. Cooper v. Sheehan<\/a>, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 22616 (4th Cir. November 7, 2013)*:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Officers rely on several decisions concluding that a police officer was entitled to qualified immunity after shooting an individual whom the officer mistakenly believed to be armed. In Anderson v. Russell, for example, the officers ordered a detainee to his hands and knees, and then shot him when he reached for a bulge in his waistband that turned out to be a radio. See 247 F.3d 125 (4th Cir. 2001). In an earlier decision, McLenagan v. Karnes, a bystander was shot as he ran toward a police officer moments after the officer learned that an armed arrestee was on the loose in the area. See 27 F.3d 1002 (4th Cir. 1994). And in Slattery v. Rizzo, an officer shot a suspect who ignored commands to show his hands before turning quickly toward the officer with what turned out to be only a beer bottle in a clinched fist. See 939 F.2d 213 (4th Cir. 1991). If deadly force was justified in such circumstances, the Officers contend, it is even more appropriate in this setting, where Cooper wielded a shotgun in plain view. Instead of supporting the Officers’ contentions, however, those decisions emphasize why the use of deadly force against Cooper was not constitutionally permissible: in each of the above scenarios, the objective basis for the threat was real, but the gun was not. Here, the shotgun was real, but \u2014 taking the facts as the district court viewed them \u2014 the threat was not.<\/p>\n

When the Officers fired on Cooper, he stood at the threshold of his home, holding the shotgun in one hand, with its muzzle pointed at the ground. He made no sudden moves. He made no threats. He ignored no commands. The Officers had no other information suggesting that Cooper might harm them. Thus, the facts fail to support the proposition that a reasonable officer would have had probable cause to feel threatened by Cooper’s actions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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