Opinion ID: 74409
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Moto Cycle Shop

Text: Approximately one minute after Defendants arrived at the parking lot of the Moto Cycle Shop, there was a two-car wreck at a nearby intersection. The crash was loud enough to be heard by the people inside the Moto Cycle Shop and by other persons in the area. Plaintiffs, their friend Dean, and mechanic Delly had been looking at motorcycles, and, in response to the wreck, they walked outside onto the sidewalk in front of the Moto Cycle Shop. They looked toward the accident scene at the intersection of Marietta and Jones Streets, which was in the opposite direction of the parking lot, the two Pontiacs, and the Defendant officers. After hearing the wreck, Defendants observed that some of the men exiting the Moto Cycle Shop appeared to be the men who had been in the blue Pontiac. According to Plaintiffs, the blue-jean-clad Defendants had their police badges concealed so that nothing visually identified them as police officers. With guns drawn, the three Defendants then approached the men outside and did not verbally identify themselves 4 Sauls and Pinckney testified that their suspicion about the blue Pontiac being stolen was increased because after its occupants appeared to recognize them as police officers, Jackson abruptly turned into the parking lot, and the occupants abandoned the blue Pontiac leaving the driver's door ajar and a jacket or shirt hanging out of the door. However, a photograph taken after the shooting by an amateur photographer from a nearby building shows that the door of the blue Pontiac was closed and that there was no clothing hanging out of the door. 5 Apparently all the Detective Radio Transcript provides is the APD dispatcher's repeating the tag number. Pinckney testified that he was on the radio during the period when Sauls was inspecting the car and approaching the Moto Cycle Shop. Plaintiffs, however, testified that the three officers approached the shop at the same time. If so, Pinckney was present when the shooting began and the call must have gone in at some other time. In any event, it is undisputed that the response that the blue Pontiac was not stolen and was registered to Jackson did not come in until after the shooting was over. 5 as police officers. Defendants yelled and cursed at everyone to get back into the Shop and lie down. Officer Sauls stood in the doorway facing the inside of the Shop. Officers Fields and Pinckney were behind Sauls with Fields on the right and Pinckney on the left.6 While in the doorway, Defendants swept the Shop's interior with their guns. There is considerable testimony that at this point everybody in the Moto Cycle Shop thought that Defendants were armed robbers about to harm them because the Defendants yelled obscenities at them, screamed at them to get on the floor, and never identified themselves as police officers. Jackson, Wimbish, Williams, and mechanic Delly went to the floor as ordered. Plaintiffs' friend Dean ran to the rear of the Shop. Mechanic Stearns ducked behind some motorcycles in the Shop. There was substantial confusion within the Shop.