Michael Higgins v. Kimberly J. Zion, Individually and as Successor in Interest to Conor Zion

In Plumhoff v. Rickard, 134 S. Ct. 2012, 2022 (2014), this Court held if police officers are justified in firing at a suspect to end a severe threat to public safety, they need not stop shooting until the threat has ended. While acknowledging the initial use of deadly force was reasonable, and that once decedent was on the ground Petitioner could not be sure if he was bluffing or only temporarily subdued, the Ninth Circuit essentially disregarded Plumhoff and held that Petitioner, a lone officer confronted by an armed suspect in a residential neighborhood who had stabbed three people, including another officer, should have stopped midway through a use of force that lasted just seconds to reassess the need for force. This is contrary to Plumhoff ’s holding that the use of force need not stop until the threat has ended. Petitioner witnessed decedent stab and incapacitate his fellow officer and then fired 18 shots in nine seconds and struck three blows to the head to ensure the decedent no longer was a threat so he could render aid to his fellow officer. This Court can correct the Ninth Circuit’s errors in its analysis by hearing this case and answering the following: 1. Whether the Ninth Circuit erred when it disregarded the holding in Plumhoff and concluded that even though the use of deadly force initially was reasonable and required, it arguably was not objectively reasonable for Petitioner, over the course of mere seconds in a rapidly evolving and dangerous and tense