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PDF: https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201913340.pdf
USCA11 Case: 19-13340 Date Filed: 02/08/2022
William David Powell,
Patrick Snook
"Lawsuits involving claims that officers used deadly force in violation of the Fourth Amendment often involve tragic circumstances. This one does. Just after midnight one evening in June of 2016, Henry County, Georgia, police sergeant Patrick Snook — who was at the wrong house because of imprecise dispatch directions — shot and killed William David Powell, who was innocent of any crime and standing in his driveway. He was holding a pistol because he and his wife thought they had heard a prowler"
"The qualified immunity issue before us is the familiar one of whether clearly established law put Snook on notice that firing the shots he did violated David Powell's constitutional rights."
For us, if we hear something outside and investigate - we need to be prepared - animal, person - a bad actor, a neighbor, a cop
If it had been a bad actor, and not an officer, how far could the homeowner have taken it? He may have been stopping a Felony Theft?
There are several, pg4-8, pages worth of description on how the cops came to be at this house at this time, and how the couple came to be outside
"Sharon Powell had a sense that David was looking at someone. He started to raise his right arm — the one holding the pistol — and got the pistol hip-high. While David was doing that, Snook went down to one knee to make himself a smaller target and rapidly fired three shots with his rifle. Sharon testified that only a "very short time" –– "[l]ike one second it felt like" –– passed between when David started to raise his gun and when Snook began firing. "
USCA11 Case: 19-13340 Date Filed: 02/08/2022
William David Powell,
Patrick Snook
"Lawsuits involving claims that officers used deadly force in violation of the Fourth Amendment often involve tragic circumstances. This one does. Just after midnight one evening in June of 2016, Henry County, Georgia, police sergeant Patrick Snook — who was at the wrong house because of imprecise dispatch directions — shot and killed William David Powell, who was innocent of any crime and standing in his driveway. He was holding a pistol because he and his wife thought they had heard a prowler"
"The qualified immunity issue before us is the familiar one of whether clearly established law put Snook on notice that firing the shots he did violated David Powell's constitutional rights."
For us, if we hear something outside and investigate - we need to be prepared - animal, person - a bad actor, a neighbor, a cop
If it had been a bad actor, and not an officer, how far could the homeowner have taken it? He may have been stopping a Felony Theft?
There are several, pg4-8, pages worth of description on how the cops came to be at this house at this time, and how the couple came to be outside
"Sharon Powell had a sense that David was looking at someone. He started to raise his right arm — the one holding the pistol — and got the pistol hip-high. While David was doing that, Snook went down to one knee to make himself a smaller target and rapidly fired three shots with his rifle. Sharon testified that only a "very short time" –– "[l]ike one second it felt like" –– passed between when David started to raise his gun and when Snook began firing. "
