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Officer was justified in shooting plaintiff while he viciously beat two officers

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

In a rapidly developing fight where the plaintiff hit two cops within seconds and one officer saw the other officer's eyes roll back, he shot the plaintiff, and it was reasonable under the circumstances. Davenport v. Causey, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 7150, 2008 FED App. 0139P (6th Cir. April 4, 2008): Our analysis is not changed by the assumed fact that, when viewing the facts most favorably to the plaintiffs, the off-camera blow did not occur and Officer Causey did not see the whites of Officer Pugh's eyes. While both would bolster Officer Causey's decision to use deadly force, the circumstances provided sufficient cause for deadly force absent these two facts. Even though Officer Causey did cite the fact that Officer Pugh's eyes rolled to their whites as a reason he decided to use deadly force, it was still reasonable for him to shoot Mr...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 05, 2008 (boomark / email).