Opinion ID: 198593
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Creation of Exigent Circumstances

Text: 34 Napier also argues that even if the officers' conduct was objectively reasonable given the exigent circumstances, the officers were the ones to blame for creating those exigent circumstances. Citing St. Hilaire v. City of Laconia, 71 F.3d 20 (1st Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 518 U.S. 1017 (1996), Napier argues that the police cannot evoke exigencies of the moment created by their own unreasonable conduct as justification for inflicting deadly force that, but for their blunders, would never have been used. However, St. Hilaire does not stand for that proposition. In St. Hilaire, we rejected the defendants' argument that the police officers' actions must be examined for reasonableness only at the moment of the shooting, opting instead to examine the officers' actions leading up to the shooting. See id. at 26. We then stated that the district court's focus on only the moment of the shooting led it to erroneously define the issue as whether there was any clearly established constitutional duty on the part of the police to avoid creating situations which increased the risk of the use of deadly force. See id. at 27. We specifically rejected this as the proper inquiry, and we did not pass on the existence of such a broad duty. See id. 35 Absent additional authority, we cannot agree that the Ramsdells' pre-confrontation actions should deprive their later conduct in response to Napier's actions of its reasonableness. Even under Napier's version of the events, the officers merely walked quietly around to the front door of Napier's house with their guns drawn, pursuant to a departmental procedure for responding to a shooting complaint. The cautious and covert manner in which the Ramsdells chose to approach the front of the house does not change the established fact that, once the officers encountered Napier, he threatened Richard Ramsdell with his gun and placed him at risk of serious bodily injury. The fact that the officers prepared themselves for exactly the behavior that Napier exhibited does not make their actions any less reasonable. 36 However, even though the Ramsdells' pre-confrontation actions do not deprive their later actions of their reasonableness, the pre-confrontation actions themselves could theoretically serve as the unreasonable conduct on which a § 1983 claim is based. As noted above, we stated in St. Hilaire that the police officers' actions leading up to the shooting must be examined for their reasonableness. See St. Hilaire, 71 F.3d at 26 (citing Brower v. Inyo, 489 U.S. 593 (1989)). After rejecting the district court's broad formulation of the inquiry (i.e. whether the duty to avoid creating situations which increase the risk of the use of violence was clearly established), we inquired whether the duty to knock and announce in executing a search warrant was clearly established. See id. at 27. Finding that no such duty was clearly established at the time of the incident, we held that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity. See id. at 28. 37 Although Napier's underlying theory that the armed officers caused the confrontation by surprising Napier is similar to the plaintiff's underlying theory in St. Hilaire, see id. at 27, the question of whether an officer must knock and announce before executing a search warrant is plainly not at issue here. Napier does not expressly outline the clearly established right or obligation that the Ramsdells allegedly breached with their pre-confrontation conduct. As noted above, the St. Hilaire court rejected as broadly defined the district court's formulation of the obligation as the duty to avoid creating situations which increased the risk of use of deadly force. Id. To determine which more narrowly-drawn obligation Napier must be asserting as clearly established, we can only analyze Napier's allegations of actions by the Ramsdells that created the confrontation. The only blunder that Napier identifies on appeal in arguing that the Ramsdells erred in allowing the situation to develop into a threatening one was that of sneaking around the house with their guns drawn, rather than telephoning Napier or contacting him from a position of cover. Napier cites no authority for the proposition that, in responding to a complaint of the discharge of a firearm, the officers have a duty to announce their presence to the shooter well before they reach the front door of the dwelling. Napier's assertion that the officers should have called ahead may or may not be a helpful suggestion to law enforcement, but Napier cites no authority that the Ramsdells had a clearly established duty to do so. Nor does he cite any authority for the proposition that the Ramsdells had a duty to refrain from approaching with their guns drawn in preparation for the potential danger of Napier's weapon being fired again. Therefore, like the officers in St. Hilaire, the Ramsdells are entitled to qualified immunity on this theory. See id. at 28. As a result, Napier's attempt to expand the scope of the scrutiny of the Ramsdells' actions to include those that occurred before the confrontation with Napier does not assist him in avoiding summary judgment. 38