Is Shooting a Suspect With a Fake Gun Reasonable?

This post is only offered as a discussion topic only and does not represent legal advice. Officers must refer to the laws in their own State as well as their agency's policies, which can be more restrictive on officers that the law requires.

Scenario: A Police officer is working patrol when they get a call of a man carrying, what looks like, a shotgun. The officer arrives on scene and recognizes the suspect from prior calls and know he suffers from mental health issues. During the officer's attempts to de-escalate, he tells you the gun is just a BB gun and tries several different things to prove it's fake.

If he points it at the officer, can they still use deadly force? 

Answer: This question was answered in the 2023 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case Estate of Strickland v Nevada County. In this case, the officers ultimately used deadly force, killing the suspect. The court said, “The pivotal moment occurred when (the suspect) began pointing the replica gun in the officers' direction. At that point, they had "probable cause to believe that [the suspect] pose[d] a significant threat of death or serious physical injury" to themselves and it became objectively reasonable for them to use lethal force.” 

The court even supported the officers’ decision to use deadly force though the gun had an orange tip and the suspect tapped the side of the gun and it made a plastic sound. While it was reasonable to believe that the gun posed a threat of death or serious bodily injury, the officers also tried to slow the pace of the interaction and articulated clearly that they did not believe the gun was fake.   

The Court said, "While the misidentification of the replica gun adds to the tragedy of this situation, it does not render the officers' use of force objectively unreasonable."

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