Joseph Frasure, Individually and as Co-Administrator of the Estate of Joe Frasure, Deceased, et al. v. City of Wyoming, Ohio, et al.

This case arises from the fatal police shooting of Joe Frasure during a late-night encounter at a family apartment that Petitioners contend they were lawfully cleaning out after the death of Joe’s grandmother. Officers responded to a report of silhouettes and lights in a building believed to be vacant. The caller did not report an armed suspect, did not report violence, and could not provide a description. The officers did not announce themselves, did not order the occupants out through an open window, and within seconds of approaching the rear of the building, two officers fired into Joe’s van. Joe was shot in the back of the head and died. The questions presented are:

1. Whether, after Barnes v. Felix, courts reviewing Fourth Amendment deadly-force claims may affirm summary judgment by focusing primarily on the seconds immediately before shots were fired while giving little operative weight to earlier facts bearing on the reasonableness of the officers’ conduct, including failure to announce, erosion of suspicion, escalation, and officer-created danger.

2. Whether a court of appeals may affirm qualified immunity at summary judgment by crediting officers’ later testimony about perceived danger where body-camera footage, physical evidence, and competing reasonable inferences would permit a jury to find that the vehicle was passing or moving away and did not pose an immediate threat when the shots were fired.

3. Whether clearly established law under Tennessee v. Garner, Graham v. Connor, and Sixth Circuit precedent including Smith v. Cupp prohibits deadly force against a fleeing vehicle when, taking the facts in the plaintiffs’ favor, no officer or bystander faced an immediate threat at the moment deadly force was used.

4. Whether pointing firearms at compliant, nonthreatening individuals during an investigation can constitute clearly established excessive force under the Fourth Amendment.