Harris v. Lasseigne, No. 14-1033 (6th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseIn 2009, Pontiac Officer Lasseigne shot and killed Craft, a 14-year-old male after responding to a 911 call, reporting males with guns were walking west on Ypsilanti Avenue. Officers testified that Craft ran from Ypsilanti Avenue, drawing a gun, and that he aimed a gun at the officers. The district court rejected several claims in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 suit filed by Craft’s estate, but denied Lasseigne’s motion for summary judgment, finding that he was not entitled to qualified immunity or governmental immunity under Michigan law because there was a genuine dispute regarding whether Craft was holding the shotgun when he was shot. The court noted that Craft was shot only once, while officer training protocol would call for multiple shots in the face of imminent danger; that still shots from the police video depict Craft pinned–at least to some extent–to the fence; and that the weapon did not have any blood on it, while both the fence and vehicle were splattered with blood. The Sixth Circuit dismissed appeal of the denial of summary judgment, affirmed denial of governmental immunity, and remanded.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.