Doug_Nightmare
Active member
Plaintiff’s decedent was in a shopping mall lawfully carrying a gun. When a shooting occurred, he drew his weapon and advanced to provide assistance. An officer on patrol in the mall saw him with the gun moving toward a man who may have been shot, and the officer shot and killed him. The use of force under the circumstances was not unreasonable. The whole thing took five seconds. Pipkins v. City of Hoover, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 9162 (11th Cir. Apr. 17, 2025)*:
“In the mind of the police officer, the lawfully-carried gun can kill just as easily as the illegal one; it is never more than a moment away from doing so.” Brandon de Pozo & Barry Friedman, Policing in the Age of the Gun, 98 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1831, 1867 (2023).
On Thanksgiving night in 2018, David Alexander—a policeman with the City of Hoover—was on foot patrol with his partner in the Galleria Mall in Birmingham, Alabama. During a suspected active shooting situation, and within seconds after gunshots had been fired in the Mall, Officer Alexander saw Emantic “E.J.” Fitzgerald Bradford moving towards two men (who appeared to be shooting victims) with a gun in his hand and at his side. Without issuing a verbal warning, Officer Alexander shot and killed Mr. Bradford when he was about ten feet away from the two men. It turns out that Mr. Bradford was legally authorized to carry his gun pursuant to a permit issued under Alabama law and was going towards the sound of the shots in an attempt to provide assistance.
