Craighead v. Lee

• Citation: 399 F.3d 954
• Decision Date: 10 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-1377.,04-1377.
• Parties: Shenita CRAIGHEAD and Sherell Craighead, as Co-Trustees for the Heirs and Next-of-Kin of Charles Craighead, Deceased, Appellees, v. Michael A. LEE and the City of St. Paul, Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

399 F.3d 954

Shenita CRAIGHEAD and Sherell Craighead, as Co-Trustees for the Heirs and Next-of-Kin of Charles Craighead, Deceased, Appellees, v. Michael A. LEE and the City of St. Paul, Appellants.

No. 04-1377.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted November 19, 2004.

Filed January 10, 2005.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied February 18, 2005.

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Frank E. Villaume, III, argued, City Attorney's Office, St. Paul, MN, for appellant.

Frederick J. Goetz, argued, Minneapolis, MN, for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN and HEANEY, Circuit Judges, and HOLMES,¹ District Judge.

HOLMES, District Judge.

Carlos Scott shot two men in less than two hours on the morning of December 3, 2001. After doing so, he pulled his gun on Charles Craighead, but Craighead wrestled the gun away from him. Craighead and Scott were still wrestling when Officer Michael Lee arrived shortly after Craighead had taken the gun from Scott. Lee's shotgun blast killed Craighead and wounded Scott.

Craighead's heirs and next of kin brought this action against Lee individually and against the City of St. Paul, asserting claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Minnesota Wrongful Death Act (Minn.Stat. § 573.02), and the common law of Minnesota. Lee and the City of St. Paul moved for summary judgment based on qualified immunity as to the Section 1983 claims and based on official immunity as to the state-law claims. Craighead's heirs and next of kin conceded their Section 1983 claims against the City of St. Paul, which left the claim against Lee individually as the only count premised on federal law. The district court² denied the motion for summary judgment. Lee and the City of St. Paul appeal that ruling. We affirm.

I.

The facts are undisputed as to the events that preceded Lee's arrival on the scene where Craighead and Scott were wrestling over the gun.

On the morning of December 3, 2001, while driving a borrowed vehicle, Scott shot Arcell Magee in a drive-by shooting. The St. Paul police dispatcher alerted the patrolmen on duty through the St. Paul police communications system at 09:10:18. The only description of the gunman was that he was a black male. Scott abandoned the borrowed vehicle, obtained a ride to the house of Shon Pierson, met Pierson on the sidewalk, chased him down, and shot him in the head. That shooting was reported by the dispatcher in three different announcements between 10:18:55 and 10:19:50.

Scott fled on foot. Over the next four minutes, the dispatcher reported sightings of a black male running in the area. Scott went to the vicinity of Marshall and Oxford, where he twice attempted to hijack a car. The first man begged, "Don't do this to me," and Scott left him. Scott then saw Charles Craighead next to a car and approached him. Craighead had just left the house of Meredith Price after negotiating a contract to paint her house. He was accompanied by Joyce McDougle. Scott attempted to force Craighead to give him a ride. Craighead grabbed Scott, and the two men started wrestling. Craighead, like Scott, was a black male.

Price called 911 at 10:23:15 and said, "I need police at 217 Oxford. A guy's pulling a gun, there's going to be a shooting here." Price continued to talk to the 911 operator as events transpired. At 10:23:43, the dispatcher broadcast, "Squads, we got a black male with a gun at 217 North Oxford across from Central High School. We have somebody on the phone reporting this. Unknown if it's one or two parties with guns." As the two men struggled, a shot was fired. At 10:24:08, the dispatcher told all squads, "one shot fired," and she followed up at 10:24:18 with the location: "Oxford and Marshall."

The wrestling took the two men across the street toward a dumpster. As they were wrestling, Craighead took the gun away from Scott.

Lee was in the vicinity, and he started driving toward North Oxford across from Central High School. Lee thought that the gunman could be the one who was responsible for the two shootings earlier that morning. He removed the shotgun issued by the St. Paul Police Department from its overhead rack and chambered one round. Driving south on Oxford, Lee crossed Marshall where he saw McDougle. He then drove further until he came to the dumpster where the two men were wrestling. Lee exited his squad car with his shotgun in hand.

From the time that Lee exited the squad car with his shotgun in hand, the testimony diverges. At 10:24:18, the dispatcher broadcast a report: "Received. One of the men, the males, took a gun away from another male and we have it at two nine seventeen North Oxford, across from Central." Lee testified that he had already exited the squad car when that report was broadcast. Craighead's heirs argue that the timing of the events makes it likely that Lee was still in the squad car when the dispatcher broadcast the news that the gun had changed hands. Lee also testified that when he exited the car he did not turn on his portable communications unit known as a "pack set," so he did not hear the news that the gun had changed hands. Craighead's heirs note that Lee testified that he customarily maintained radio contact when not in his car through his "pack set" and that he would turn his pack set on by reflex when he exited the car. Another officer testified that Lee's habit is common practice among St. Paul police officers.

When Lee exited the squad car, his focus was on the man with the gun — Craighead. Lee testified that he yelled at the top of his voice several times, drop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun. Lee says that Craighead responded, looked at him, and placed the gun on the top of an object in the dumpster. Because the gun was still in reach, Lee continued to yell at Craighead to drop the gun, drop the gun. A moment later, according to Lee, Craighead reached back in the dumpster and grabbed the gun, pointed the gun toward Scott, and then pointed it back toward Lee. Lee says that, when Craighead pointed the gun back toward him, he hit the safety on his shotgun, aimed at Craighead, and fired. Craighead and Scott were still wrestling when Lee fired. Lee was approximately 30 feet from them. The shot hit both men. Scott fell immediately, but Craighead did not, which made Lee think he had missed Craighead. He yelled at Craighead, get down, get down, and then Craighead went down. The 911 operator reported at 10:24:28, "Says the police shot the wrong guy." Lee reported at 10:24:29, "Shots fired! One down!"

Lee estimated that ten seconds passed between his exiting the squad car and firing the shotgun. Assuming that he fired before 10:24:28 — when the dispatcher reported, "Says the police shot the wrong guy" — on Lee's account he would have been outside his car when the dispatcher broadcast the report at 10:24:18 that the gun had changed hands.

The testimony of Price and McDougle conflicts with Lee's. Price and McDougle testified that Craighead held the gun over his head pointed upward throughout his struggle with Scott. Craighead was substantially taller than Scott and was holding the gun out of Scott's reach as an older child would hold an object out of the reach of a younger child who was trying to take it from him. Price and McDougle testified that Craighead never pointed the gun toward Lee. They testified that Lee did not tell Craighead to put the gun down. They testified that Lee gave no warnings and no commands. They testified that Craighead never put the gun on an object in the dumpster. McDougle estimated that seven or eight seconds passed between the time Lee exited his car and the time he fired his shotgun. Price testified, "[Lee] arrived, got out of the car, and shot him. It was pretty much that quick." She estimated that three seconds passed between the time Lee exited the squad car and fired his shotgun. "It all happened very, very quickly."

If Lee fired the shot six seconds or less before 10:24:28 when the 911 operator reported, "Says the police shot the wrong guy," and if Lee took only three seconds from exiting the car until firing the shot, he would have been in his car when the dispatcher reported that the gun had changed hands.

Another officer, Rob Stanway, followed Lee to the scene at a distance of three or four car lengths. Stanway saw the men wrestling, saw the gun, and started to open his door and take cover behind it so that he would not be exposed to pistol fire, but he heard the blast of Lee's shotgun before he could get out. He did not see Lee fire.

Both sides submitted expert witness reports. Defendants' experts say that Lee's actions were objectively reasonable. Plaintiffs' experts say that they were not. Plaintiffs' experts say that, at the distance of some 30 feet, under the circumstances with the two men grappling, a trained shooter would have known that the shot would probably hit both men. One of plaintiffs' experts opined, "The shooter elected to shoot both the suspect and his victim, whomever either might be, without any discrimination whatsoever for who was going to be seriously injured and/or killed[.]" Another of plaintiffs' experts opined, "Officer Lee consciously chose to discharge his firearm at both men, reasonably knowing that one of them was not the suspect and was not involved in any criminal activity."

II.

In deciding a motion for summary judgment, a district court must view the facts and inferences in the light most favorable to the party opposing summary judgment. Boerner v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 260 F.3d 837, 841 (8th Cir.2001). The district court did so here. Thus, the district court accepted plaintiffs' version of the facts according to which Craighead held the gun over his head, pointed upward, throughout his struggle with Scott; Lee knew that only one black male was suspected in the earlier crimes; Lee knew that one of the two men before him was most likely a victim; and Lee exited his squad car and fired his shotgun within three...