Fifth Circuit Rejects Police Shooting Qualified Immunity Defense

An Arlington, Texas, police officer, must face the excessive force claim by the estate of a father he shot after the car he was driving was stopped because his two-year-old daughter threw a plastic candy cane out of the window, the Fifth Circuit said.

The district court erred by granting officer Craig Roper qualified immunity because questions existed regarding the severity of the crime involved and whether Tavis Crane posed a threat and was resisting arrest, the Sept. 30 opinion by Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham said. It was also clearly established at the time that “using deadly force on an ...