RICHMOND, Va. — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that Martinsburg police officers who shot a man in 2013 should not have qualified immunity in a lawsuit alleging excessive force.
Judges Roger Gregory, Henry Franklin Floyd and Stephanie Thacker concurred in the June 10 opinion. Floyd authored the opinion.
"In 2013, it was clearly established that law enforcement may not constitutionally use force against a secured, incapacitated person — let alone use deadly force against that person," Floyd wrote.
The case involves Wayne Jones, who was fatally shot by Martinsburg Police Department officers 22 times in March 2013. He was 50 years old.
Jones, a black man experiencing homelessness, was stopped by law enforcement in Martinsburg for walking alongside, rather than on, the sidewalk.
"By the end of this encounter, Jones would be dead," Floyd wrote. "Armed only with a knife tucked into his sleeve, he was tased four times, hit in the brachial plexus, kicked, and placed in a chokehold. In his final moments, he lay on the ground between a stone wall and a wall of five police officers, who collectively fired 22 bullets."
Jones had been walking by the road when an officer, Paul Lehman, followed him for a short time, pulled over and asked him why he was walking on the road instead of the sidewalk.
Lehman questioned Jones, who was homeless and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and then called for backup. Lehman continuously asked Jones to put his hands on the police car, but Jones did not comply and asked multiple times "What are you trying to do?;" "What do you want?;" and "What did I do to you?" Lehman never answered the questions.
Lehman, Erik Herb, Daniel North, William Staub and Eric Neely were the officers involved, with Neely being identified as the one who fired the first shot. Herb is no longer employed with the police department.
Jones’ estate sued the city, bringing a Fourth Amendment claim against the officers and a Monell claim against Martinsburg.
The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on both claims, holding that the officers are protected by qualified immunity and that the city cannot be liable under a Monell theory for failing to train those officers.
"Although we agree that the City is insulated from Monell liability premised on one incident of excessive force, we reverse the grant of summary judgment to the officers on qualified immunity grounds, as a reasonable jury could find that Jones was both secured and incapacitated in the final moments before his death," Floyd wrote.
Floyd wrote that Jones' death was just over a year before the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
"Seven years later, we are asked to decide whether it was clearly established that five officers could not shoot a man 22 times as he lay motionless on the ground," Floyd wrote. "Although we recognize that our police officers are often asked to make split-second decisions, we expect them to do so with respect for the dignity and worth of black lives."
Floyd wrote that before the ink dried on this opinion, the FBI opened an investigation into yet another death of a black man at the hands of police, — George Floyd in Minneapolis, Mo.
"This has to stop," Floyd wrote. "To award qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage, in this case, would signal absolute immunity for fear-based use of deadly force, which we cannot accept. The district court’s grant of summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds is reversed, and the dismissal of that claim is hereby vacated."
Floyd wrote that by shooting an incapacitated, injured person who was not moving, and who was laying on his knife, the police officers crossed a “bright line” and can be held liable.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit case number 18-2142