Heath Rankin v. Christian Longoria, et al.

Manuel Longoria led police on a high-speed chase for more than an hour, through residential areas and school zones. He attempted to ram patrol cars and run over police officers and told the officers that he had a gun and threatened to shoot them. After police disabled his vehicle, Longoria exited, concealed his hand behind his back, refused commands to show his hands, and then made a sudden, threatening movement – with a shiny black object in his hand – toward Pinal County Sheriff Deputy Heath Rankin. In that splitsecond, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow officers, and the bystanders that had gathered, Deputy Rankin fired two deadly shots. Everything was captured on videotape. The Ninth Circuit denied qualified immunity, holding that deadly force was unreasonable in these circumstances and violated a clearly established right. The questions presented are: 1. In finding the use of deadly force unreasonable against a fleeing suspect, who was known to be armed and threatened and attempted to kill officers, did the Ninth Circuit err in rejecting uncontroverted video evidence – depicting the suspect reaching for his waistband and then quickly raising his arms up, chest high, and extending them out in the officers’ direction while holding a shiny black object – and instead relying on facts unknown to the officer-defendant and speculation of the suspect’s subjective intent to manufacture disputes regarding the threat of immediate harm?