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To: CedarDave

The “fleeing felon” rule was significantly restricted by the Supreme Court in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985).

Wikipedia has a decent one-sentence summary of the Garner case:

“When a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, he or she may use deadly force only to prevent escape if the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”

From my reading of the press coverage, the predicate for deadly force was completely lacking here.


14 posted on 01/17/2014 12:17:35 PM PST by JackOfVA
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To: JackOfVA
“When a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, he or she may use deadly force only to prevent escape if the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”

What a can of worms that opens up. Somebody already driving recklessly could be considered to "pose a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others." I don't think this helps at all - could be argued either way before a court.

17 posted on 01/17/2014 12:59:04 PM PST by CedarDave (Fox News - Obama couldn't sign up for healthcare because the system couldn't verify his identity!)
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