BLACKBURN, J.
The matters before me are (1)
I have jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 (federal question) and 1367 (supplemental jurisdiction).
Both plaintiff and defendants have moved for summary judgment.
A party who does not have the burden of proof at trial must show the absence of a genuine fact issue. Concrete Works of Colorado, Inc. v. City & County of Denver, 36 F.3d 1513, 1517 (10th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1004, 115 S.Ct. 1315, 131 L.Ed.2d 196 (1995). By contrast, a movant who bears the burden of proof must submit evidence to establish every essential element of its claim or affirmative defense. See In re Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Securities Litigation, 209 F.Supp.2d 1106, 1111 (D.Colo.2002). In either case, once the motion has been supported properly, the burden shifts to the nonmovant to show by tendering depositions, affidavits, and other competent evidence that summary judgment is not proper. Concrete Works, 36 F.3d at 1518. All the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Simms v. Oklahoma ex rel. Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, 165 F.3d 1321, 1326 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 815, 120 S.Ct. 53, 145 L.Ed.2d 46 (1999). However, conclusory statements and testimony based merely on conjecture or subjective belief are not competent summary judgment evidence. Rice v. United States, 166 F.3d 1088, 1092 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 933, 120 S.Ct. 334, 145 L.Ed.2d 260 (1999); Nutting v. RAM Southwest, Inc., 106 F.Supp.2d 1121, 1123 (D.Colo.2000).
On August 6, 2010, Colorado State Patrol Dispatch received a 911 call from Andrew Tesar, a mental health counselor, reporting that he had received a distressing call from plaintiff. Tesar reported that plaintiff, a Vietnam War veteran, was reexperiencing trauma and further was intoxicated, suicidal, and possibly armed. Officers with the Alamosa Police Department were dispatched to the local hotel where plaintiff was reported to be staying to perform a welfare check. Defendant Jeff Martinez was the first to arrive on the scene, followed by Officers (and former defendants) B. Cooper and Kenneth Anderson and Corporal Robert Lockwood.
The hotel clerk confirmed that plaintiff had checked in and that he had been drinking. Officers recontacted Mr. Tesar, who reported that plaintiff was on the phone with Mr. Tesar's wife and was threatening to "blow his head off." In a subsequent call, Mr. Tesar reported that plaintiff had cut off communication with him.
Based on these facts, the officers believed plaintiff was an imminent danger to himself and potentially to others. Having obtained a key card from hotel personnel, the officers decided to enter the room without knocking. Officer Martinez entered the room first with his duty weapon
As he entered the room, Officer Martinez saw plaintiff sitting on the bed facing away from him. Officer Martinez's testimony that he could not see plaintiff's hands is not disputed. The officers announced loudly that they were police and commanded plaintiff to show his hands and lie down on the floor. Plaintiff failed to comply and, in fact, may have attempted to stand instead.
Still holding his gun in his right hand, Officer Martinez attempted to push plaintiff back down on the bed by reaching around plaintiff's right side with his free hand, a procedure that has been referred to herein as "going `hands on.'" This decision violated police department protocols, which requires an officer to holster his weapon before going hands on with a suspect. Officer Martinez testified that he recalled his finger being outside the trigger guard when he moved to go hands on with plaintiff.
This lawsuit followed. Of plaintiff's four original claims, three remain: (1) a Fourth Amendment claim for excessive force against Officer Martinez in his official and individual capacities; (2) a claim against the City of Alamosa for inadequate training/ supervision with regard to use of force in situations involving mentally ill individuals;
Plaintiff and defendants agree that the standards for identifying whether a Fourth Amendment violation occurred here must be determined by reference to the Supreme Court's decision in Brower v. County of Inyo, 489 U.S. 593, 109 S.Ct. 1378, 103 L.Ed.2d 628 (1989). In Brower, the Court considered whether a fleeing suspect had been seized for purposes of the Fourth Amendment by a police roadblock. See id., 109 S.Ct. at 1380. The Court concluded that the suspect had been seized because the police, although perhaps not intending the suspect to fatally crash into the roadblock, had established it with the intent to terminate his flight:
Id. at 1381 (emphasis in original). In other words, pursuant to Brower, a seizure must be the result of a willful act. Id.
There is no question but that, in the ordinary sense of the term, plaintiff was "seized," and that Officer Martinez intended to seize him. Nevertheless, Brower teaches that this fact alone is insufficient to give rise to a seizure that implicates the Fourth Amendment. To determine whether the seizure has constitutional dimension, I must focus more precisely on what means or instrumentality Officer Martinez intended to effectuate the seizure. To be clear, this inquiry does not delve into Officer Martinez's subjective intent, i.e., whether he intended to harm plaintiff in the process of effectuating the seizure, which subjective intent is irrelevant for Fourth Amendment purposes. See id.
On that score there is no genuine issue of material fact to suggest other than that Officer Martinez's intention was to seize plaintiff by going hands on and pushing him to the bed or the floor. The instrumentality, therefore, was the hands on technique.
The issue might be inappropriate for summary resolution if the evidence suggested any genuine issue of material fact about whether Officer Martinez intentionally fired his weapon. Yet even plaintiff's own experts admit there is no evidence suggesting that the shooting was attributable to anything other than an accidental discharge. In considering similar scenarios, the courts have concluded unanimously that, without some dispute regarding volition on the part of the officer who fired the shot, no Fourth Amendment seizure occurs. See, e.g., Dodd, 827 F.2d at 7-8 (suspect who reached for gun while being handcuffed shot when officer reflexively pulled weapon away); Brice v. City of York, 528 F.Supp.2d 504, 513 (M.D.Pa. 2007) (summary judgment appropriate where plaintiff's only evidence of intent was officer's decision to carry his weapon into melee to restrain suspect who had been tackled by several officers while attempting to flee; "An excessive force claim may proceed to substantive analysis only after the excessive force plaintiff establishes a threshold volitional act."); Pollino v. City of Philadelphia, 2005 WL 372105 at *8 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 15, 2005) (granting summary judgment where plaintiff failed to produce credible evidence disputing defendant's assertion that weapon discharged accidentally during struggle with plaintiff); Clark v. Buchko, 936 F.Supp. 212, 219 (D.N.J.1996) (summary judgment appropriate where suspect, after initially lying prone on floor to be handcuffed, pushed himself back up, backing into gun of officer who was providing cover, and gun discharged); Troublefield v. City of Harrisburg, 789 F.Supp. 160, 166 (M.D.Pa.1992) (weapon fired as officer was reholstering it after handcuffing suspect; "[S]ome nature of volitional act on the part of the state actor must cause the harm to plaintiff for a fourth amendment excessive force claim to sound. Negligence in pulling out a firearm or in reholstering it is not sufficient[.]"), aff'd, 980 F.2d 724 (3d Cir.1992); Glasco v. Ballard, 768 F.Supp. 176, 177, 180 (E.D.Va.1991) (officer exited car to speak to suspect with gun drawn but reached back inside car to stop it drifting forward, accidentally shooting suspect); Matthews v. City of Atlanta, 699 F.Supp. 1552, 1556-57 (N.D.Ga.1988) (summary judgment appropriate where no evidence to dispute that gun discharged accidentally when, as officer reached through cab of suspect's truck to turn off engine, truck lurched forward, causing shot that killed suspect). Cf. Cardona v. Cleveland, 1997
Granted, none of these cases reflects precisely the facts of this case, although Brice comes close. Nevertheless, the principle to be derived is pellucid: A Fourth Amendment seizure may be found only where there is evidence suggesting that the officer's decision to fire his weapon was volitional. No such evidence having been adduced in this case, Officer Martinez is entitled to summary judgment. Moreover, because plaintiff's claim for failure to train/supervise as to the use of force in situations involving mentally ill suspects depends on a showing that a constitutional violation occurred in the first instance, see Carr v. Castle, 337 F.3d 1221, 1228 (10th Cir.2003), the City of Alamosa is entitled to summary judgment on that claim as well.
Having resolved all plaintiff's federal claims, the only claim remaining is that for battery under state law against Officer Martinez in his individual capacity. When all federal claims have been dismissed prior to trial, the court generally should decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over pendant state law claims. United States v. Botefuhr, 309 F.3d 1263, 1273 (10th Cir.2002). I find it appropriate to do so here, and, thus, will dismiss plaintiff's remaining state law claim.
1. That
2. That
3. That plaintiff's First, Second, and Third Claims for Relief, as well as plaintiff's Fourth Claim for Relief, insofar as it is brought against defendant, Jeff Martinez, in his official capacity as Law Enforcement Officer of the Alamosa Police
4. That the court
5. That judgment
5. That judgment also
6. That all other currently pending motions, including, but not limited to (a) defendants'
7. That the telephonic setting conference currently scheduled for April 10, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. (MDT), is
8. That on all claims dismissed with prejudice, defendants are
However, I am compelled to point out to plaintiff that, despite his apparent conviction that he has had a motion to amend the complaint pending before the court by virtue of his response to defendants' 12(c) motion, he is mistaken, and in obvious need of a more thorough familiarity with the Local Rules of Practice for the United States District of Colorado-Civil. See D.C.COLO.LCivR 7.1 C. ("A motion shall not be included in a response or reply to the original motion.").