{"id":219,"date":"2022-09-15T20:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/?p=219"},"modified":"2022-09-15T20:00:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T20:00:39","slug":"city-of-aurora-co-facing-liability-for-police-shooting-of-homeowner-holding-a-gun-inside-his-home-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/?p=219","title":{"rendered":"City of Aurora, CO Facing Liability for Police Shooting of Homeowner Holding a Gun Inside His Home [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police.jpg\" data-caption=\"Image via Aurora, CO PD via Twitter.\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-696x464.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-700x466.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police-560x373.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Aurora-Colorado-Police.jpg 770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" alt=\"\" title=\"Aurora Colorado Police\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via Aurora, CO PD via Twitter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-next-post-navi\">\n<p>\nNext Post Coming Soon&#8230;\u25b6\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The City of Aurora, Colorado faces a civil rights lawsuit for shooting a homeowner who holding a shotgun \u2014 by the barrel \u2014 within his own residence. The victim, Andrew Huff, claims that officers who were in plain dark clothes as they approached his home at night, only identified themselves <em>as they opened fire<\/em>. Huff took a round to the rectum.<\/p>\n<p>Now he\u2019s the one firing legal shots at the cops involved as well as the City of Aurora.<\/p>\n<p>A blistering federal magistrate\u2019s \u201cReport and Recommendation\u201d in <em>Huff v. City of Aurora,<\/em> paints a damning picture of excessive use of deadly force by the officers. It recommends rejecting their claims of qualified immunity given their apparent unreasonable actions when assessed under the<a href=\"https:\/\/legaldictionary.net\/graham-v-connor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em> Graham v. Connor<\/em><\/a> precedent, and by other facts in the case as well.<\/p>\n<p>The judge\u2019s report also criticizes the City of Aurora for a lack of training of their officers in de-escalation and how to respect homeowners and their right to possess guns in their homes.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, by backing the officers\u2019 actions in Huff\u2019s case \u2014 as well as a similar 2018 case in which the APD shot and killed a homeowner standing inside his home, the suit suggests the city effectively encouraged such unconstitutional behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Eugene Volokh does a deep dive on the case <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/volokh\/2022\/09\/13\/mr-huff-alleges-that-the-officers-did-not-identify-themselves-at-any-time-prior-to-the-shooting\/\">at his Volokh Conspiracy blog<\/a> . . .<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>From Magistrate Judge Reid Neureiter\u2019s Report and Recommendation yesterday in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cod.210349\/gov.uscourts.cod.210349.57.0.pdf\">Huff v. City of Aurora<\/a>\u00a0(D. Colo.) (the ultimate decision will be in the District Judge\u2019s hands, though such Magistrate Judge Reports and Recommendations are generally quite influential)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><em>At 11:30 p.m., Officers Ord, Marrero, and Oviatt, without any advance notice to Mr. Huff, went to Mr. Huff\u2019s home. They parked around the corner and, wearing all black clothing, proceeded to \u201ccreep\u201d through neighboring yards towards Mr. Huff\u2019s residence. When Mr. Huff, who was smoking outside, saw these unidentified individuals advancing upon his home, he believed that Mr. Bejar-Gutierrez was following through on his earlier threats. He ran inside and retrieved a shotgun. He was facing the window with both hands by his side. His left hand held the shotgun by the barrel\u2014his finger was not on the trigger and the gun was pointed at the ceiling. About 30 feet away, Officer Ord drew his weapon and, as he yelled, \u201cPut your hands up, put your hands up!\u201d, fired five shots at Mr. Huff. Mr. Huff, who was diving away from the window as Officer Ord opened fire, was shot in rectum and severely injured. Another round entered the room where his daughter lay sleeping.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I am not a lawyer, but I know that courts generally take a dim view of police shooting homeowners standing inside their homes carrying or holding a legally-possessed firearm in a non-threatening manner. Furthermore, if the cops weren\u2019t in uniform, concealed their approach and failed to identify themselves before firing, they have even less leeway to shoot first and ask questions later.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><noscript><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"DxwBi0gDDVM\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Body camera footage of Aurora officer-involved shooting released\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DxwBi0gDDVM?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/noscript><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Volokh shares the magistrate\u2019s in-depth analysis of the use of force by the cops. Spoiler: It doesn\u2019t look good for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westword.com\/news\/aurora-police-chief-vanessa-wilson-firing-fallout-13818041\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">troubled<\/a> Aurora PD . . .<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><em>Officer Ord attempted to justify his actions by exclaiming that Mr. Huff \u201ccame into the window with a gun,\u201d and afterwards stated, \u201cThey are racking up in the garage,\u201d when, in fact, Mr. Huff, bleeding profusely on the floor, was merely calling 911 for help. Mr. Huff was charged with multiple felonies, all of which were ultimately dismissed. The second is a claim for municipal liability brought against the City for its allegedly unconstitutional policies, practices, and customs.<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p>So the APD filed multiple felony charges against the homeowner. Was that a little CYA on the part of the officers involved? It surely looks that way, given how prosecutors ultimately dismissed all of them. As for the city\u2019s liability . . .<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>And the Magistrate Judge also concluded that municipal liability was possible here, because Huff \u201chas sufficiently alleged that the City failed to train Officer Ord in the use of appropriate force when confronted with individuals exercising their Second Amendment right to keep bear arms in their homes, and that the City\u2019s final policymakers ratified Officer Ord\u2019s allegedly unconstitutional use of deadly force\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><em>Mr. Huff alleges here that \u201c[n]ot only does Aurora have absolutely no training on shooting into residences or encounters with homeowners exercising Second Amendments rights, but it has also almost zero training on avoiding unnecessary escalation, and deficient training on proportional constitutional use of force.\u201d If true, this <strong>demonstrates the APD\u2019s deliberate indifference to its citizens\u2019 constitutional rights, especially given how many American homeowners\u2014exercising their well-established Second Amendment rights\u2014legally own and possess firearms.<\/strong> Accordingly, at this early stage, Mr. Huff\u2019s Amended Complaint plausibly states a claim against the City under a failure to train theory\u2026.\u00a0 (Emphasis added)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Maybe the Aurora Police Department should have spent less time on <a href=\"https:\/\/sentinelcolorado.com\/news\/metro\/new-aurora-police-reforms-draw-praise-criticism-from-cops-and-community\/\">critical race theory and diversity equity and inclusion training<\/a> and more time concentrating and training officers on dealing with citizens who lawfully exercise their civil rights and protect their homes from violent criminals.<\/p>\n<p>After all, they suspended the Aurora police union head after he criticized the diversity hiring practices of the city. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/aurora-police-union-suspended-racism\/\">From RawStory<\/a> . . .<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>The head of the Aurora Police Union was suspended after sending a letter complaining about diversity requirements for the police department,\u00a0local CBS4 reported Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Aurora has been fielding several scandals that has ushered in a series of changes to the department.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>That evidently triggered Police Union President Doug Wilkinson, who sent an email complaining about \u201cdiversity hires.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>\u201cTo match the \u2018diversity\u2019 of \u2018the community\u2019 we could make sure to hire 10% illegal aliens, 50% weed smokers, 10% crackheads, and a few child molesters and murderers to round it out. You know, so we can make the department look like the \u2018community,&#8217;\u201d the email said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Back to Eugene Volokh\u2019s piece . . .<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><em>According to Mr. Huff, APD Chief Paul O\u2019Keefe publicly supported Officer Ord after the shooting, stating that Officer Ord complied with APD policy and did nothing wrong. Mr. Huff further notes that former APD Chief Nick Metz publicly backed the officers who shot and killed Mr. Black in 2018. No officers were disciplined in either case. Mr. Huff argues that this amounts to ratification and is evidence of the APD\u2019s unconstitutional policy of shooting at homeowners lawfully exercising their Second Amendment rights\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><em>Chief O\u2019Keefe\u2019s failure to discipline Officer Ord after shooting Mr. Huff cannot, on its own, plausibly form the basis of municipal liability on a ratification theory. However, \u2026 \u201c[a] failure to investigate or reprimand might also cause a future violation by sending a message to officers that such behavior is tolerated.\u201d That is what Mr. Huff alleges here. He claims that after police shot and killed Mr. Black in his home, then-Chief Metz publicly stated the officers did nothing wrong and none of them were disciplined. Then, Chief O\u2019Keefe, after \u201ccarefully review[ing] and analyz[ing] Officer Ord\u2019s decision to shoot Plaintiff,\u201d under circumstances similar to those that resulted in Mr. Black\u2019s death, likewise determined that the officer\u2019s actions were in line with APD policy. If the City\u2019s final policymakers took affirmative steps to not merely condone but also commend the allegedly excessive and unconstitutional use of deadly force by APD officers, this deliberate conduct may be enough to establish the existence of an official informal policy, whatever the formal written policy may provide\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It looks as though the City of Aurora \u2014 which has had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com\/article\/news\/local\/aurora-pds-interim-chief-steps-down-a-week-before-taking-over-announces-retirement\/73-8aa0d8d6-a43f-4a3e-a5a7-dcb82d83a282\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than its share<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westword.com\/news\/aurora-police-department-has-had-a-disastrous-year-11735744\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">problems<\/a> with its <a href=\"https:\/\/sentinelcolorado.com\/news\/metro\/search-warranted-amid-turmoil-aurora-seeks-a-new-police-chief\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">police force<\/a> \u2014 might want to break out the checkbook and see if they can make this go away in a settlement using taxpayers\u2019 dollars. Because if this goes to a jury, it surely looks like Mr. Huff is holding all the cards.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-next-post-navi\">\n<p>\nNext Post Coming Soon&#8230;\u25b6\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutguns.com\/city-of-aurora-co-facing-liability-for-police-shooting-of-homeowner-holding-a-gun-inside-his-home\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image via Aurora, CO PD via Twitter. Next Post Coming Soon&#8230;\u25b6 The City of Aurora, Colorado faces a civil rights lawsuit for shooting a homeowner who holding a shotgun \u2014 by the barrel \u2014 within his own residence. The victim, Andrew Huff, claims that officers who were in plain dark clothes as they approached his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}