In Isayeva v. Barry, published on October 2, 2017, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court decision denying summary judgment to a sheriff's deputy who tased and then fatally shot the plaintiff's decedent. The deputies received domestic disturbance calls from the decedent's brother-in-law and the decedent himself. The brother-in-law reported that the decedent might be mentally ill, might be on methamphetamine, was hearing voices in his head, and refused to move out. The decedent showed signs of drug use, and was agitated. The officers attempted to detain the decedent for 72-hour mental health observation. He fought the officers, and threw or bucked the defendant officer into a wall. The defendant officer used his taser in dart mode, which did not stop the decedent. The decedent, who was larger than the deputies, began beating the defendant deputy, who was beginning to pass out. The deputy yelled, "Shoot him," and then fatally shot the decedent. The district court denied the deputy's summary judgment motion, ruling that material issues of fact defeated qualified immunity.
The 9th Circuit ruled that genuine issues of fact about what happened did not defeat summary judgment based on qualified immunity, so long as the undisputed facts, combined with the disputed facts interpreted in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, established that the deputy was entitled to qualified immunity. Here, interpreting the facts in that manner, the law did not clearly establish that an officer who tased and then fatally shot a suspect violated clearly-established law. First, no case law dealing with tasing suspects held that an officer under similar circumstances--facing a resisting suspect who was physically larger, hearing homicidal voices, and who bucked the officer off--violated the Fourth Amendment by using a taser once in dart mode. Second, no case law held that an officer violated the Fourth Amendment by using deadly force under similar circumstances--a mentally ill or high suspect who had not been stopped by a taser and who was beating an officer unconscious, posing the risk that the suspect would take the officer's gun once the officer was knocked out. That "Shoot him" was yelled also gave the decedent warning that he would be shot if he persisted.
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