In Villalobos v. City of Santa Maria, ordered published November 16, 2022, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 6 affirmed summary judgment in favor of the defendant city and its police officers. Officers responding to a report of a suspicious person with a knife saw the plaintiff's decedent standing in a road holding a knife with a long blade. The officers ordered the decedent to drop the knife. The decedent held the knife to his own throat. He pointed, gesticulated, and appeared upset. The police attempted to negotiate with him for 42 minutes. Eventually, without warning, the officers deployed less-than-lethal beanbag rounds and 40 mm rubber projectiles against the decedent. They were 30-40 feet from the decedent. The decedent saw the officers taking aim, and made a "go ahead" gesture. The decedent began jumping up and down and stabbing himself in the abdomen with the knife. He slashed his own throat with the knife. He then charged full speed toward the officers, the knife in his right hand. The officers fired several rounds of live ammunition at the decedent. He fell a few feet from the officers. He died of multiple gunshot wounds. Based on the totality of the circumstances, the trial court found that the officers were not negligent, and that no reasonable juror could find that the police acted unreasonably. On appeal, the plaintiff conceded that the shooting became reasonable at some point, but that the officers were negligent in their pre-shooting conduct, resulting in the decedent's suicidal assault with the knife.
The appellate court agreed with the trial court. The officers were not obliged to let the decedent go. They could use reasonable force to disable him. The fact that the less-than-lethal force was unsuccessful is not the reason deadly force was needed. Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, no reasonable juror could find that officers were negligent or had acted unreasonably. The officers patiently waited approximately 40 minutes before resorting to less-than-lethal weapons. The decedent charged the officers in an apparent attempt to commit "suicide by cop." That the officers did not use alternatives to deadly force did not raise a triable issue on negligence. Officers are not required to use all feasible alternatives to avoid a situation where deadly force can justifiably be used.