- Police Brutality Watch

The Supreme Court refused Monday to clarify when police can use deadly force to stop fleeing criminal suspects but said a lower court got it wrong in allowing a lawsuit against an officer in Washington state who shot a burglary suspect. Law enforcement groups and 16 states had encouraged the court to use the officer's appeal to clarify protection for officers from lawsuits when they injure or kill fleeing felons. Instead, the court issued an unsigned opinion that found only that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco erred in ruling that the officer, Rochelle Brosseau, clearly violated the suspect's constitutional rights. Brosseau shot Kenneth Haugen in 1999 as he fled in his Jeep to avoid being arrested for drug charges and for questioning in a burglary in Puyallup, Wash., a city of about 35,000 people in the Puget Sound region 10 miles east of Tacoma. Haugen pleaded guilty to fleeing police but then filed suit claiming a civil rights violation. He suffered a punctured lung in the shooting but recovered. The 9th Circuit, which is frequently overturned by the Supreme Court, said Brosseau should face a jury. "Officer Brosseau shot an unarmed man in the back as he attempted to drive away from her. In these circumstances, the officer's actions should be second-guessed," justices were told in a filing by Haugen's attorney, Bonnie Robin-Vergeer of the Public Citizen Litigation Group. On the other side, the officer's actions were praised by law enforcement groups and states. [more]