Juan Carlos Salazar v. Juan Rene Molina

After initially fleeing from police who suspected him of speeding, petitioner encountered a roadblock, pulled his car over, exited, and lay face down on the ground with hands outstretched. Respondent then approached petitioner and tased him in the back. Under Graham v. Connor, the reasonableness of force depends on the circumstances an officer faced, including the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat, and whether he is actively resisting or evading arrest. 490 U.S. 386, 396 (1989). The district court denied respondent’s summaryjudgment motion, citing disputes about the surrender that precluded qualified immunity. On interlocutory appeal, the Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that petitioner’s high-speed initial flight, alone, permitted respondent to doubt the sincerity of petitioner’s subsequent surrender and that the tasing was therefore a reasonable use of force. The Fifth Circuit’s past-flight-forfeits-surrender rule conflicts with Sixth and Seventh Circuit precedent holding that officers must identify aspects of a surrender suggesting it is fake and not assume so based on past flight alone. The question presented is: Whether a suspect’s dangerous past flight, without more, authorizes officers to doubt the sincerity of a subsequent surrender, as the Fifth Circuit holds, or whether courts must evaluate the reasonableness of force based on the actual features of the surrender itself and the circumstances an officer faces at the time force is used, as the Sixth and Seventh Circuits require.