Massachusetts Court: Cop Liable for ‘Accidental Shooting’

By Robert Farago

Republished with permission from Force Science Institute:

The risk of keeping a finger on the trigger when not intending to shoot has long been emphasized in Force Science research reports. The potential human toll–and the liability burden–are vividly illustrated in a recent Appellate Court decision in which justices ruled that officers are not guaranteed qualified immunity from legal action when a shooting is purely unintentional and accidental . . .

The case arose from a midnight raid by a municipal SWAT team on an apartment in [Framingham] Massachusetts suspected of harboring several youthful crack dealers with records of violent offenses and ties to street gangs.

In a pre-action briefing, the operators were told that when they crashed into the place they would likely encounter the lessee, a 68-year-old step-father of one of the raid targets [Eurie Stamps, above], who was “not suspected of any involvement in the illegal activity underlying” the search warrant. They were advised that the elderly man had “no history of violent crime or of owning or possessing a weapon and…posed no known threat to the officers.”

Indeed, the team confronted him in a hallway, roused from bed and startled …Read the Rest

Source:: Truth About Guns