ADA Violation.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Matthew King v. Hendricks County Commissioners, et al.

Case No.: 19-2119

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and EASTERBROOK and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: ADA Violation

Bradley King, a 29-year-old resident of Hendricks County, Indiana, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was killed by a police officer on November 29, 2016, during an encounter at his home. Two Hendricks County reserve deputies went to the Kings' family home to perform a "welfare check" after Bradley called 9-1-1 and requested help. Matters then spun horribly out of control, though what precisely happened is disputed, aside from the fact that Bradley wound up dead. The only living eyewitnesses are the officers involved.

The evidence developed for purposes of the defendants' motion for summary judgment was as follows. The deputies, Jason Hays and Jeremy Thomas, testified that upon their arrival, Bradley came out of the house, walked toward them, and pulled a ten-inch knife out of his shorts pocket. Hays and Thomas backpedaled, drew their service firearms, and yelled at Bradley to stop and drop the knife. Bradley disregarded their commands and kept moving forward. Then, with the knife in his left hand, left arm raised in front of him so that the blade was pointing toward the officers, he started running at Hays. When Bradley was approximately eight feet away, Hays fired one shot. It proved to be fatal. According to the autopsy, the bullet grazed Bradley's left upper arm and entered his chest, directed "left to right, downwards, and slightly front to back." A large knife, which Bradley's father identified as one from the Kings' kitchen, was recovered from the ground near Bradley's left hand. An examination of the knife did not reveal any latent fingerprints.

Bradley's father, Matthew King, disputes the officers' account. He asserts that Bradley was never violent, even when suffering a psychotic episode, and would not have charged at the police with a knife. King urges that...