Estate of Williams v, Indiana State Police Dept.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-police officials’ motion for summary judgment in section 1983 action alleging that defendants used excessive force during confrontation with deceased plaintiff, where defendants responded to report that plaintiff was locked in bathroom and had threatened to kill himself and others, and where defendants ultimately killed plaintiff after first attempting to subdue him with taser and then shot him after plaintiff approached defendants with raised knife. Defendants were entitled to qualified immunity, where defendants’ use of deadly force was reasonable under circumstances of case, especially where there was no evidence that plaintiff had abandoned his threat to kill those who tried to come near him. With respect to second section 1983 action that similarly concerned incident in which defendant-police officer eventually shot mentally ill plaintiff after being called to plaintiff’s home, Dist. Ct. could properly find that defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity, where record showed that defendant did not initially use non-lethal force to subdue plaintiff, and where there was some evidence that although plaintiff posed danger to himself, plaintiff had not threatened violence towards others and was merely passively resisting others.