No Qualified Immunity For Deputies Who Shot Terminally Ill Man.

In the early morning, a wife observed her terminally ill husband, who was suffering from brain cancer, go to his truck, retrieve his gun and load it with ammunition. She called 911, but he told her to hang up and she did.  Police nevertheless responded, and the wife explained the situation. The husband came into view of the deputies. He held a pistol, barrel down, in one hand and his walker in the other as he appeared on a balcony of the home. The Ninth Circuit opinion states: “Soon after the deputies broadcast that [the husband] had a firearm, the dispatch log records ‘shots fired.’ [The husband] fell to the ground, and [a deputy] continued to shoot. Together the three deputies fired approximately nine shots.” The husband died. The wife brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 asserting two constitutional claims. The district court denied qualified immunity as well as the deputies’ motion for summary judgment, and the deputies appealed. The Ninth Circuit agreed the three deputies could be found to have violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on excessive force.  George v. Morris  (Ninth Cir.; July 30, 2013) (Case No.’s 11-55956, 11-56020).