Z. J. v. Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, No. 17-3365 (8th Cir. 2019)
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Plaintiff, a minor, filed suit against the SWAT team officers, the detectives, and the Board under 42 U.S.C. 1983, after she suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from the blast of a flash-bang grenade. In this case, even though the SWAT team knew the suspect was already in custody, they broke open the screen door of the suspect's residence and threw a flash-bang grenade into the living room of the home before a young woman could open the door with the keys she was holding in her hand. The only people inside where three women and a two year old girl. The girl suffered PTSD from the officers' use of the flash-bang grenade.
The Eighth Circuit held that the SWAT team officers were not entitled to qualified immunity because any reasonable officer would have known the use a flash-bang grenade under these circumstances constituted excessive force. It was clearly established at the time that use of a flash-bang grenade was unreasonable where officers have no basis to believe they will face a threat of violence and they unreasonably fail to ascertain whether there are any innocent bystanders in the area where the grenade is deployed. Therefore, the district court did not err by denying summary judgment based on qualified immunity. The court also held that detectives are entitled to summary judgment because there was probable cause to support the search warrant, even considering the omitted information, and because their decision to use a SWAT team, regardless of whether it was reasonable, did not violate clearly established law. Accordingly, the court reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment as to the detectives. Finally, the court held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction to review the district court's denial of summary judgment to the Board, and the court dismissed the appeal as to the Board.
Court Description: Grasz, Author, with Gruender and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. In action alleging defendants - a SWAT team, Kansas City detectives and the Police Board - used excessive force in searching the home where plaintiff resided, the district court denied the defendants' motions for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. Held, the SWAT team's use of a flash-bang grenade was not reasonable under the circumstances, where the suspect in a murder investigation was already in custody, there was no reason to believe the residents of the home posed any threat and the officers had no knowledge as to who was in the house; it was clearly established in 2010, the time of the incident, that use of a flash-bang grenade is unreasonable where officers have no basis to believe they will face a threat of violence and they unreasonably fail to ascertain whether there are any innocent bystanders in the area where the grenade is deployed; the Kansas City detectives were entitled to summary judgment based on qualified immunity because there was probable cause to issue a search warrant for the home - even without the information plaintiff contends was improperly omitted from the warrant application - and because the officers' decision to deploy a SWAT team, regardless of whether it was reasonable, did not violate clearly established law; the court lacks jurisdiction to review the denial of the Board of Police Commissioner's motion for summary judgment because the Board, as municipal entity under Missouri law, is not protected by qualified immunity; the court does not have pendent appellate jurisdiction to review the issue. Judge Gruender, concurring in part and dissenting in part. Judge Kelly, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
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