Case Brief # 2 (232)

The Estate of Ronald H. Armstrong
Type of case
This case deals with the question of decisions taken when carrying out an arrest. It is concerned with the amount of force police officers apply when arresting individuals under different circumstances. The case questions the amount of force that was forcible by the use of arresting tools, in this case, the Taser. The amount of force in particular according to the circumstances that were present during the arrest is brought to question that later yielded unexpected results (Samaha, 2017).
Facts of case
The court discussed the amount and level of force that was applied by Officer Gatling who used a Taser several times to arrest Ronald H. Armstrong who was a mentally ill person. It was based on qualified immunity grounds as the methods resulted in the death of the arrestee. The arrestee’s sister, Jinia Armstrong Lopez, took the case to court after believing that the police officers had inflicted unreasonably excessive force and pain to her mentally ill brother who had escaped from the hospital after being frightened.
The examining doctor had issued involuntary commitment papers after carrying out evaluations on him and established him as a danger to himself. The court confirmed that Armstrong had been off his medications for five days and had started injuring himself before his attempted arrest. The doctor had failed to mention whether he was a threat to others too as it would have affected the choice of force that was us…