Smith v. City of Brooklyn Park, et al., No. 13-1640 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, trustee for the heirs and next of kin of Erik Kirk Kolski, filed suit against the City and police officers, alleging that defendants violated Kolski's constitutional rights when the officers used deadly force against Kolski during a response to a domestic disturbance with a weapon. The court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity to Officers Glirbas and Cudd where the use of deadly force was constitutionally permissible because Kolski made threats and possessed a firearm. The court also affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to Officers Glirbas and Cudd on the state-law claims on the basis of official immunity where plaintiff identified no evidence showing that the officers intentionally committed an act that they had reason to believe was prohibited and, instead, the evidence demonstrated that they acted reasonably in response to a significant threat of death or physical injury.
Court Description: Civil case - Civil rights. In action alleging officers violated plaintiff's decedent's constitutional rights when they used deadly force against him in response to a domestic disturbance call, the district court did not err in granting the defendant officers' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity as the officers' use of deadly force was objectively reasonable when the decedent was pointing a shotgun at them; nor did the court err in granting the officers summary judgment on plaintiff's state-law claims on the basis of official immunity.
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