PDA

View Full Version : Help finding case



John Hearne
03-16-2016, 07:40 PM
In the past, I've read a case in which a hostage was killed while police attempted to kill the hostage taker. IIRC, it occurred on a bus. I want to say Connecticut but can't swear to it. The court held that since the police didn't have an intent to seize the hostage that they weren't liable for his death under the Fourth Amendment.

Can anyone help me?

ssb
03-16-2016, 08:08 PM
Maybe Medeiros v. O'Connell, 150 F.3d 164 (2d Cir. 1998)?


We hold that no Fourth Amendment seizure occurred in the present case, because the police did not intend to restrain Joshua. The deflection of the bullet intended for Pink did not transform the troopers' rescue efforts on the hostages' behalf into a seizure.

Id. at 169.

A similar case is Landol-Rivera v. Cosme, 906 F.2d 791 (1st Cir. 1990):


We reject the notion that the “intention” requirement is met by the deliberateness with which a given action is taken. A police officer's deliberate decision to shoot at a car containing a robber and a hostage for the purpose of stopping the robber's flight does not result in the sort of willful detention of the hostage that the Fourth Amendment was designed to govern.

Id. at 794.

John Hearne
03-16-2016, 08:25 PM
That's the one. Thanks so much....

joshs
03-16-2016, 08:26 PM
I found several cases with similar holdings as those listed by ssb. None of those that I found occurred on a bus, but the general rule from all of the cases seems to be that the mere shooting of a person is not necessarily a "seizure" under the Fourth Amendment; the shooting has to be intentionally directed at the person for a seizure to occur. These cases reach this holding by applying the Supreme Court's reasoning from Brower v. County of Inyo, 489 U.S. 593 (1989).