By: John Cucci, Jr., Esq. – Attorney at Law
In this action-packed true crime, A woman (Torres) was using Methamphetamines and other drugs with friends next to a parked car. According to police,she was “tripping” and likely hallucinating. (4th Amendment Right)
When the cops approached her she thought they were carjackers. Thus, she hit the gas in her car and sped off away from police. She drove to a parking lot where she stopped to tell a bystander that she was being carjacked. Then, noticing a Kia idling nearby, she left her car, jumped into the Kia, and took that car. Then she drove 75 miles to a hospital in Grants, NM. (This is all true.)
The police shot at her 13 times before she got away. Although she got to a hospital out-of-town (Grants), that hospital had her Med Evacted, to an Albequerique hospital where she was arrested the next day. She pled guilty to her crimes, but sued the police for Excessive Force and claimed that the police violated her 4th Amendment Right against unreasonable seizure.
In the Supreme Court decision it was held that an “arrest” occurs when the police touch you, in any manner, with the addition of government authority. There are two parts: touching, and intent with authority. There is no need for the arrest or seizure to be long-lasting. Therefore, when the police shot Torres while attempting to arrest her with lawful authority, she was indeed arrested.
The court went on to warn: “A seizure requires the use of force with intent to restrain. Accidental force will not qualify.” Torres v. Madrid (U.S. 2021)
“A seizure is a single act, not a continuous one.” If the subject does not submit, a seizure by force lasts only as long as the application of force. That means the officers seized Torres “for the instant that the bullets struck her.”
This is a case where the plaintiff was shot by police while she fled the scene after being stopped by police. Torres, ran from the police when they approached her sitting in her parked car. She was “tripping”on Methamphetamines, and ran from the police. She jumped into a nearby car that was running with no one in it. She then hit the gas in an attempt to flee from police. As she sped away, the cops shot at her more than ten (10) times, hitting her twice. She sued the police alleging that the forced used to “seize” her was excessive and unlawful.
The Trial Court, and the appeals court both ruled that the case should be dismissed, because shooting her was not held to be a type of seizure or arrest. The Supreme Court reversed and ruled that : “A seizure is a single act, not a continuous one.” Thus, Torres was right when she claimed that the police did possibly violate her 4th Amendment Right to be free from “Unreasonable searches and seizures.”
John Cucci, Jr., Esq. – Attorney at Law
