ORANGE COUNTY POLICE SHOOTING ATTORNEY
Deadly force may be used only to stop a subject who poses an imminent threat of injury or death to an officer or others and is attempting to evade capture. Cases involving the use of deadly force by police officers can arise in several factual scenarios. The victim may be armed but not then posing an imminent threat to the officer or others. The officer may claim that the victim appeared to be armed when the victim in fact was not armed. Or, the victim may simply be running away, posing no apparent threat to anyone.
Often, the police claim the victim was making a turning movement and so they shot the victim. However, police cannot shoot a person for simply turning around. In fact, the victim might be turning around because that is the police instruction at the time.
Other times, the officer claims that he or she believed the victim was armed with a gun or a knife, but the victim in fact was not armed. The plaintiff will seek to establish that a reasonable officer, faced with the circumstances then facing the defendant officer, would not have used deadly force.
In order to do this, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the objective facts confronting the defendant officer at the time were insufficient to justify the use of deadly force.
Scott Hughes is a Police Shooting Attorney in Orange County, California practicing in both State and Federal Court. Orange County Police Abuse and Excessive Force Lawyer