Dawson v. Brown

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-police officer’s motion for summary judgment in section 1983 action alleging that defendant used excessive force when tackling plaintiff during incident in which defendant and another police officer were attempting to arrest plaintiff’s son, who was actively resisting other officer. Reasonable inference from various versions of incident indicated that: (1) defendant tackled plaintiff as plaintiff was approaching other officer who was struggling with plaintiff’s son or within seconds after plaintiff had approached said officer; and (2) plaintiff had previously communicated that he was afraid that other officer was going to kill his son. Moreover, instant tackle of plaintiff could not be viewed as excessive force, where it was reasonable for defendant to believe that plaintiff, who was within four feet of other officer, was attempting to interfere with lawful arrest.