## Facts

- After a domestic altercation, Terry Allen left home with ammunition and several firearms and drove to his sister’s residence in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
- Law enforcement circulated information that Allen was armed, had threatened family members, and had an outstanding warrant.
- Police were dispatched to the sister’s home following a 911 report that Allen was threatening suicide.
- Lt. Don Smith arrived and saw Allen seated in a vehicle with one foot outside and a gun in his right hand resting on the center console.
- Smith repeatedly ordered Allen to drop the gun; Officer Bentley McDonald arrived and joined Smith at the driver’s side.
- The record, viewed favorably to the plaintiff, indicated Smith reached into the vehicle to seize the gun while another officer restrained Allen’s arm, leading to a struggle.
- During the struggle, Allen’s gun discharged; Allen then pointed the gun toward the officers, and officers shot and killed him. The encounter lasted about 90 seconds.
- The decedent’s estate alleged the officers escalated the situation by rapidly confronting Allen and attempting to disarm him immediately, contrary to accepted practices for armed, suicidal subjects.
- An expert opined that the police training encouraged or failed to deter direct, aggressive tactics in suicidal-subject encounters, increasing the likelihood of a fatal shooting.

## Issues

1. Whether, viewing the evidence in the nonmovant’s favor, a reasonable jury could find the officers used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment under the objective reasonableness standard.
2. Whether sufficient evidence supported municipal liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for failure to train, including deliberate indifference and causation linking training deficiencies to the shooting.

## Decision

- The Tenth Circuit reversed summary judgment for the individual officers and remanded, holding material factual disputes existed on whether the officers’ actions were objectively reasonable.
- The court held the reasonableness analysis could consider officers’ conduct leading up to the shooting where that conduct arguably created or escalated the need for deadly force.
- The court reversed summary judgment for the City (over a partial dissent), holding the record permitted a jury to find constitutionally deficient training, deliberate indifference, and that the training was a moving force behind the alleged violation.

## Legal Principles

- Fourth Amendment excessive-force claims are evaluated under an objective reasonableness standard based on the totality of circumstances from the viewpoint of a reasonable officer on the scene.
- In assessing objective reasonableness, a factfinder may consider pre-seizure conduct that plausibly created or increased the danger culminating in the use of deadly force.
- Summary judgment is improper where material facts are disputed and credibility choices would be required to resolve whether officers acted reasonably.
- A municipality may be liable for failure to train when the training deficiency reflects deliberate indifference to constitutional rights and is closely related to, and causes, the injury.
- Municipal liability may proceed where evidence supports both a potential underlying constitutional violation by officers and a causal link to municipal training or policy.

## Conclusion

The court held that a jury could find the officers’ rapid, confrontational efforts to disarm an armed, suicidal person were objectively unreasonable when viewed as part of the full sequence leading to the shooting, and that evidence of deficient training could support municipal liability; summary judgment for both the officers and the City was therefore reversed and the case remanded.


Allen v. Muskogee, 119 F.3d 837 (10th Cir. 1997)