Minchuk v. Strand

Issues: (1) Whether evidence of a dangerous and violent suspect’s sudden and unexpected gesture of surrender immediately and objectively terminates the deadly threat that that suspect had created, such that a police officer is no longer justified in using deadly force in self-defense under the Fourth Amendment, or whether, as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 5th and 10th Circuits have held, the totality-of-the-circumstances analysis continues to apply even when there is evidence suggesting that the suspect had attempted to withdraw from his assault of the officer; and (2) whether Officer Minchuk is entitled to qualified immunity, when neither plaintiff nor the court of appeals could identify any preseizure precedent holding that a police officer’s use of deadly force within seconds of a violent suspect’s assault of that officer was unreasonable, and when the most closely-analogous circuit precedent established that a police officer is not required to accept a suspect’s surrender at face value in tense and uncertain circumstances.