Officers were not entitled to qualified immunity in a lawsuit over their shooting and killing of a man. They deployed tear gas into his apartment in an attempt to extricate him from the unit where he had isolated himself threatening to commit suicide. After he still refused to come out, the officers used additional tear gas and flash bang grenades to enter the apartment, setting fire to the exterior room before throwing the flash bang grenades into the darkened bedroom inches from his head and rendering him blind and deaf before shooting him to death. The appeals court ruled that it could be found that the excessive use of tear gas and flash-bang grenades in this manner against a "non-threatening, non-violent, non-resisting individual" violated clearly established rights. Estate of Escobedo v. Bender, #08-2365, 2010 U.S. App. Lexis 7016 (7th Cir.).
     Throwing a "flash-bang" device "blind" into an apartment which officers believed might have one armed robbery suspect and up to eight other people sleeping there who were not involved in the robbery was an excessive use of force when it was done without a warning or the consideration of alternatives, federal appeals court rules. Officers were entitled to qualified immunity from liability, however, as the law on the subject was not clearly established at the time. Boyd v. Benton County, #02-35776, 374 F.3d 773 (9th Cir. 2004). [2004 LR Oct]