Rogers v. King, No. 16-4209 (8th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs filed suit against defendant, a police officer, after the officer shot and killed Marilyn Denise Ambrose-Boyd during a welfare check. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment, holding that the officer was entitled to qualified immunity on the 42 U.S.C. 1983 claims where the officer's use of deadly force was objectively reasonable. In this case, the officer went to Ambrose-Boyd's home after receiving a 911 call report that she was home alone, suicidal, and had a gun. Furthermore, Ambrose-Boyd failed to respond to commands to drop her weapon and raised her gun to another officer's shin level. The court also held that the police chief and the city could not be liable because the officer acted reasonably.
Court Description: Murphy, Author, with Loken and Murphy, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, and considering the totality of the circumstances, defendant officer King's use of deadly force against plaintiffs' decedent was objectively reasonable; the officers who responded to decedent's apartment had been told she was armed and suicidal and found her with the weapon; when she appeared unresponsive to their commands and raised the gun to one of the officer's shin level, a reasonable officer would had probable cause to believe she posed threat of serious physical harm and that the use of deadly force was objectively reasonable; since the officer's use of deadly force was not a constitutional violation, the city could not be held liable under Section 1983 for failure to train; even if the court concluded the officer's use of force was unreasonable, neither the municipality or the chief of police can be held liable for unconstitutional conduct under a theory of respondeat superior.
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