Threatened by an act, the officer can
defend himself. If a jury agrees that it was a threat.
A domestic violence case of an ex-husband, and his new wife,
coming to harm the ex-wife and her new boyfriend and take the children. Police
were tipped off and the officer arrived at the scene before the ex-husband.
When the Appellant arrived at the same time as another party, Campbell, a
friend called by the mother, arrived to take the children to safety.
Campbell made a remark that caused the appellant to “tense up.” After
tensing up, the appellant walked toward Campbell with clenched fists appearing
“ready to fight.” Seeing this, the officer pointed his Taser at the appellant
yelling, “Stop, Police, Taser. Stop, Police, Taser.”
Sergeant Garcia said, “He stopped. He
looked at me, he grinned, took another step towards Campbell and I yelled a
third time, ‘Stop, Police, Taser.’” As the appellant advanced, Sergeant Garcia
pulled the Taser trigger, the Taser projectiles “went through the appellant’s
shirt” but “did not make contact” with his body. At that point the appellant
“stopped, looked down at [the projectiles], looked at [Sergeant Garcia] ,
looked at Campbell, took a step” towards Campbell. Then the appellant turned
and walked towards Sergeant Garcia with fists clenched and grinning. Sergeant
Garcia considered this advance a threat, he still had his fists clenched and
was grinning. At this point the appellant “stopped, looked, grinned and reached
down,” then grabbing the Taser wires, closing the Taser’s circuit “and the
Taser took effect on him.” The appellant was then safely taken into custody.
The appeal is based on the argument
that the defendant did not vocalize a threat or physically assault the officer.
The appellate court agreed with the jury in the district court saying “a
rational jury could find that grinning and walking ‘with purpose’ and clenched
fists toward [the officer] was a threat by unlawful act.’
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.