Lisa Veronica Varnadore v. Brandon Merritt ( 2019 )


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  •            Case: 18-14568   Date Filed: 07/30/2019   Page: 1 of 19
    [DO NOT PUBLISH]
    IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
    ________________________
    No. 18-14568
    Non-Argument Calendar
    ________________________
    D.C. Docket No. 2:17-cv-00013-LGW-BWC
    LISA VERONICA VARNADORE,
    Plaintiff-Appellant,
    versus
    BRANDON MERRITT,
    Defendant-Appellee.
    ________________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Southern District of Georgia
    ________________________
    (July 30, 2019)
    Before WILSON, BRANCH, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
    PER CURIAM:
    Case: 18-14568    Date Filed: 07/30/2019   Page: 2 of 19
    Plaintiff-Appellant Lisa Veronica Varnadore (“Varnadore”), individually
    and in her representative capacities as the administratrix of her deceased son
    Joshua Foskey’s (“Foskey”) estate and as next friend of Jenna Grayce Foskey,
    appeals the district court’s decision granting Defendant-Appellee Brandon
    Merritt’s (“Merritt”) motion for summary judgment. In granting that motion, the
    district court dismissed Varnadore’s 
    42 U.S.C. § 1983
     claim that Merritt violated
    the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution when he shot and killed
    Foskey, who was unarmed, during a brief roadside encounter. The district court
    also dismissed several related state law claims on the basis of official immunity.
    We have closely reviewed the record in this case, including video taken from
    the dashboard camera in Merritt’s patrol car, audio recordings of 911 calls, and
    audio recordings of radio correspondence between Merritt and a 911 operator. We
    have also carefully reviewed the parties’ briefs and considered the relevant legal
    standards. Following this review, we conclude that Merritt is entitled to qualified
    immunity because video evidence of the shooting and the surrounding
    circumstances makes it clear that no reasonable jury could find that Merritt lacked
    an objectively reasonable basis for using deadly force against Foskey under the
    circumstances of this tragic case. We also conclude that the district court did not
    err when it dismissed Varnadore’s state law claims. Consequently, we affirm the
    district court’s decision granting Merritt’s motion for summary judgment.
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    I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
    We assume the parties are familiar with the record of this case and recount
    the facts and procedural history in this opinion only the extent necessary to provide
    context for our decision. The events giving rise to this appeal occurred on the
    morning of May 22, 2014. About 9:00 a.m. that day, Varnadore called 911 to
    request an ambulance because Foskey, her 34-year-old son, was locked inside his
    pickup truck outside her home. He was asleep and sweating profusely. On a
    second call shortly thereafter, Varnadore reported to the 911 operator that Foskey
    had awakened and “took off in the truck.” She also said he was “staggering around
    and talking crazy” and that a “needle had fallen out of the truck.” Finally,
    Varnadore reported to the 911 operator that Foskey told her before he left: “I’m not
    going to jail, I want to die.”
    Merritt, then a sheriff’s deputy in Jeff Davis County, was dispatched to
    Varnadore’s residence. He arrived in the area shortly before 9:15 a.m. just as
    Foskey’s truck spun out onto the two-lane highway fronting Varnadore’s home.
    Merritt activated the blue lights on his patrol car, informed the 911 center he had
    seen the truck, and began to pursue Foskey. During the two-minute chase that
    followed, all of which is captured on Merritt’s dashboard camera, Merritt’s patrol
    car reached speeds of 100 miles per hour or more. Foskey’s truck was at times “all
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    over the road,” and he drove in the wrong lane for several seconds shortly after an
    oncoming car passed going the opposite direction.
    Merritt caught up with Foskey just as the truck returned to the correct lane.
    The two vehicles crossed a small bridge and Foskey slammed on his brakes,
    bringing the truck to a sudden and forceful stop. The two left wheels of the truck
    came to rest near the white line marking the right shoulder of the road, and the
    right side of the truck was parked in the grass alongside a dense tree line next to
    the road. Merritt stopped his patrol car about sixteen yards behind Foskey’s truck
    and positioned himself behind the open driver’s side door of his patrol car. By
    now, the 911 operator had informed Merritt that Foskey was under the influence
    and suicidal.
    Merritt’s dashboard camera also captured the brief roadside encounter that
    followed. A moment after Merritt’s patrol car comes to a complete stop, Foskey is
    shown swinging open the driver-side door of his truck. He then immediately steps
    out of the truck and faces his body toward Merritt’s patrol car (with his back to the
    truck’s open driver-side door). Foskey then stares in Merritt’s direction for a few
    seconds as he appears to reach around inside the truck as if grasping for something.
    Although the video from Merritt’s dashboard camera did not record any audio,
    Merritt’s testimony reveals—and Varnadore does not dispute—that Merritt twice
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    told Foskey to “show me your hands” (once before drawing his handgun and once
    after). According to Merritt, Foskey yelled back at him and said “no.”
    The dashboard camera then shows Foskey’s head and upper body disappear
    from view as he leans inside the truck. The center console of the truck appears to
    open.1 Two to three seconds later, Foskey jumps from the truck—facing Merritt’s
    patrol car—and pulls his right arm across his body. His right hand moves quickly
    from the left side of his torso near his beltline upward and toward Merritt. Several
    unidentified objects are visible in his right hand. Merritt fires a single shot from
    his handgun.2 The shot strikes Foskey in the neck and he falls to the ground.
    Only twenty seconds passed from the time Merritt stopped his car behind
    Foskey until the time he fired his handgun. Aside from having his handgun trained
    on Foskey and instructing him at least twice to show his hands, Merritt gave no
    express warning that he would use deadly force. It was later discovered that
    Foskey was unarmed. The unidentified objects in his right hand were a CD case
    and two pieces of paper. Foskey eventually died at the scene.
    II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
    Varnadore filed an action in the United States District Court for the Southern
    District of Georgia seeking damages under 
    42 U.S.C. § 1983
     for a violation of the
    1
    Merritt later testified that he did see Foskey “flip the console.”
    2
    Merritt also testified that, at this point in time, he was “backing up” toward the driver-
    side taillight of his patrol car in an effort to seek safe cover.
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    Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. She also alleged several
    state law claims and asked the district court to exercise its supplemental
    jurisdiction to consider those claims. The parties conducted limited discovery, and
    Merritt moved for summary judgment on grounds that he did not use excessive
    force because the act of shooting Foskey was objectively reasonable under the
    circumstances. He also argued he was entitled to qualified immunity because case
    law had not clearly established that the force he used under the circumstances was
    unlawful. As to the state law claims, Merritt argued that he was entitled to official
    immunity.
    The district court granted Merritt’s motion for summary judgment. Relying
    heavily on the video evidence taken from Merritt’s dashboard camera, the district
    court concluded that Merritt did not use excessive force in violation of the Fourth
    Amendment because “it was objectively reasonable for [Merritt] to believe that he
    was in a sho[o]t or be shot situation.” In particular, the district court first found
    that Foskey’s erratic driving during the traffic chase potentially put others at risk
    but would not alone support the use of deadly force because it would not put a
    reasonable officer on notice that Foskey might be armed or violent. It then focused
    on Foskey’s behavior during the roadside encounter and concluded that he “would
    have appeared to a reasonable officer to be gravely dangerous.” Among other
    things, the district court emphasized the manner in which “Foskey quickly [swung]
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    his body around in one fast motion, out of the car,” and also how “Foskey’s hand
    swung up from the waist, across his body, and directly toward Deputy Merritt like
    someone raising a handgun about to fire.” Finally, the district court noted that
    Foskey “refused to comply with Deputy Merritt’s order to show his hands,” instead
    hiding his hands in the truck and opening the center console.
    The district court also exercised its discretion to decide Varnadore’s state
    law claims. It did so primarily at the insistence of Varnadore’s counsel, who
    acknowledged at a hearing before the district court that “if you [the district court]
    think the officer acted reasonably under federal law then I don’t think you can say
    that the officer shot Mr. Foskey for no reason which would kill the Georgia claim.”
    The district court concluded that Merritt was entitled to official immunity under
    Georgia law because he acted reasonably and without “actual malice” in this case.
    This appeal followed.
    III. ARGUMENTS ON APPEAL
    On appeal, Varnadore argues that summary judgment was inappropriate
    because a reasonable jury could find that Merritt’s use of deadly force against
    Foskey was not objectively reasonable under the circumstances. In making this
    argument, Varnadore points to the fact that Merritt had interacted with Foskey
    before and that Foskey had not acted aggressively toward Merritt during those
    encounters. She also points out that the 911 operator did not inform Merritt that
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    Foskey was armed and that Merritt did not ask whether he might be. She notes that
    Merritt had an unobstructed view of Foskey in broad daylight, and that he should
    have clearly seen that Foskey did not have a gun in his hand. She argues that
    Merritt was protected by his patrol car when he shot, and that it was not necessarily
    reasonable for Merritt to think Foskey was capable of shooting him given the fact
    that Foskey was under the influence of narcotics. She contends Foskey was not
    resisting arrest and, even if he were, Merritt never gave a warning that he planned
    to use deadly force. In sum, Varnadore insists that Merritt’s subjective belief that
    Foskey had a gun and might shoot him is insufficient to establish probable cause
    for the use of deadly force. As was the case before the district court, Varnadore
    agrees that her state law claims should rise or fall with the federal § 1983 action.
    In response, Merritt argues that the district court correctly determined—and
    the video evidence clearly shows—that his use of force was objectively reasonable.
    He contends that Foskey would have appeared to be gravely dangerous to any
    reasonable officer faced with the circumstances depicted in the video taken from
    Merritt’s dashboard camera. In the alternative, Merritt argues that he is entitled to
    qualified immunity because case law has not clearly established a bright-line rule
    that would have put him on notice that his actions violated the Fourth Amendment.
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    IV. STANDARD OF REVIEW
    We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment, applying
    the same legal standards as the district court. Stephens v. DeGiovanni, 
    852 F.3d 1298
    , 1313 (11th Cir. 2017). “Summary judgment is appropriate if the evidence
    before the court demonstrates that ‘there is no genuine dispute of material fact and
    that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.’” Taylor v.
    Hughes, 
    920 F.3d 729
    , 732 (11th Cir. 2019) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)). In
    determining whether summary judgment is appropriate, “we view all evidence and
    make all reasonable inferences in favor of the party opposing summary judgment.”
    Whatley v. CNA Ins. Cos., 
    189 F.3d 1310
    , 1313 (11th Cir. 1999). In cases
    involving a qualified immunity defense, “this usually means adopting . . . the
    plaintiff’s version of the facts.” Scott v. Harris, 
    550 U.S. 372
    , 378, 
    127 S. Ct. 1769
    , 1775 (2007). However, “[w]hen opposing parties tell two different stories,
    one of which is blatantly contradicted by the record, so that no reasonable jury
    could believe it, a court should not adopt that version of the facts for purposes of
    ruling on a motion for summary judgment.” 
    Id. at 380
    , 
    127 S. Ct. at 1776
    . This is
    especially the case when clear video evidence is in the record. Indeed, when there
    are no allegations or indications that video evidence has been doctored, or that the
    video shows something different than what actually happened, the Supreme Court
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    has indicated that we should “view[] the facts in the light depicted by the
    videotape.” 
    Id. at 378
    , 380–81, 
    127 S. Ct. at
    1775–76.
    V. DISCUSSION
    The district court did not err when it granted Merritt’s motion for summary
    judgment because no reasonable jury could conclude that Merritt lacked an
    objectively reasonable basis for using deadly force against Foskey. In the light of
    the video evidence of Merritt’s brief but lethal encounter with Foskey on May 22,
    2014, it is clear to us that any reasonable officer in Merritt’s position would have
    viewed Foskey as an immediate and serious threat to his or her own safety.
    Qualified immunity protects “government officials performing discretionary
    functions . . . from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not
    violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable
    person would have known.”3 Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 
    457 U.S. 800
    , 818, 
    102 S. Ct. 2727
    , 2738 (1982). The qualified immunity defense balances “the need to hold
    public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need
    to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform
    their duties reasonably.” Pearson v. Callahan, 
    555 U.S. 223
    , 231, 
    129 S. Ct. 808
    ,
    815 (2009). This permits officials to perform their work without fear of liability,
    3
    There is no question in this case that Merritt was acting in his discretionary capacity as
    a deputy sheriff when the challenged shooting occurred.
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    protecting “all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the
    law.” Malley v. Briggs, 
    475 U.S. 335
    , 341, 
    106 S. Ct. 1092
    , 1096 (1986).
    Once asserted, a plaintiff must make two showings to overcome an official’s
    qualified immunity defense. See Griffin Indus., Inc. v. Irvin, 
    496 F.3d 1189
    ,
    1199–1200 (11th Cir. 2007). The plaintiff must show (1) that the official violated
    a constitutional right, and (2) that the right was “clearly established.” 
    Id.
     This
    Court is now “permitted to exercise [its] sound discretion in deciding which of the
    two prongs of the qualified immunity analysis should be addressed first in light of
    the circumstances in the particular case at hand.” Pearson, 
    555 U.S. at 236
    , 
    129 S. Ct. at 818
    . Because we conclude that Merritt did not violate Foskey’s Fourth
    Amendment rights in this case, it necessarily follows that there was no violation of
    a clearly established right.
    The Fourth Amendment provides a “right of the people to be secure in their
    persons . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const. amend. IV.
    This “freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures encompasses the right to
    be free from excessive force during the course of a criminal apprehension.” Oliver
    v. Fiorino, 
    586 F.3d 898
    , 905 (11th Cir. 2009) (citing Graham v. Connor, 
    490 U.S. 386
    , 394–95, 
    109 S. Ct. 1865
     (1989)); Mercado v. City of Orlando, 
    407 F.3d 1152
    ,
    1156 (11th Cir. 2005)). Thus, all claims that a law enforcement official has used
    excessive force in apprehending a suspect are analyzed under the Fourth
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    Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” standard, meaning that the question we
    must ask “is whether the officer[’s] actions are ‘objectively reasonable’ in light of
    the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying
    intent or motivation.” Graham, 
    490 U.S. at 397
    , 
    109 S. Ct. at 1872
    .
    The force used to affect the seizure “must be reasonably proportionate to the
    need for that force.” Shaw v. City of Selma, 
    884 F.3d 1093
    , 1099 (11th Cir. 2018).
    Three nonexclusive factors guide this totality-of-the-circumstances inquiry,
    “including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an
    immediate threat to the safety of the officer[] or others, and whether he is actively
    resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.” Graham, 
    490 U.S. at 396
    ,
    
    109 S. Ct. at 1872
    . These three factors serve only as a guide, and it is not
    necessary in all cases for an officer to show that all three factors weigh in his or her
    favor to establish that the force ultimately used was reasonably proportionate to the
    need for force. See Shaw, 884 F.3d at 1098–1100 & n.5 (noting that “[t]he
    reasonableness of the shooting depends on the totality of the circumstances” and
    concluding that, in a case involving a mentally ill victim wielding a hatchet, the
    outcome of the appeal “turn[ed] on the second of these factors: presence of an
    imminent threat”).
    As in Shaw, the outcome of this appeal turns on the presence of an
    immediate threat. In focusing our inquiry on the second of the three factors
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    outlined above (i.e., the immediacy of a serious threat), the issue we are called
    upon to determine is whether an officer in Merritt’s position reasonably could have
    believed that Foskey posed a serious threat when he ignored Merritt’s orders to
    show his hands and instead reached around inside his truck, jumped out of his
    truck, and then quickly raised his right hand toward Merritt and away from his
    beltline while holding unidentified objects. Under the totality of the circumstances
    of this case—and as evidenced by the clear video evidence from Merritt’s
    dashboard camera—we hold that a reasonable officer in Merritt’s position
    reasonably could have believed that Foskey posed a serious threat to his or her own
    safety.
    To begin, Foskey drove erratically during a brief traffic pursuit and brought
    his truck to a sudden and forceful stop. He quickly exited his vehicle and stared in
    Merritt’s direction. Ignoring Merritt’s orders to show his hands, Foskey reached
    around inside his truck and appeared to be grasping for something. He also
    appeared to open the center console inside his truck. By this time, 911 operators
    had also informed Merritt that Foskey was under the influence and suicidal.
    Although it may be that Merritt would not have had an objectively reasonable basis
    for using deadly force against Foskey at this moment in time (i.e., before he
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    jumped out of his truck),4 what happens next is, in the light of everything that
    came before, most critical to our disposition of this appeal.
    Next, the video clearly shows Foskey abruptly jumping out of his truck,
    facing in the direction of Merritt’s patrol car, and quickly raising his right arm
    toward Merritt and away from his beltline as if pulling a gun from his waist.
    Importantly, Varnadore does not argue on appeal that the video taken from
    Merritt’s dashboard camera has been doctored, or that the video shows something
    other than what actually happened. Instead, she argues that Merritt should not
    have fired because he had previously interacted with Foskey; or because Merritt
    could see clearly; or because with a couple more steps, Merritt could have been
    safe behind the patrol car; or because Foskey was under the influence and could
    not have fired an accurate shot even if he had possessed a gun; or because Merritt
    did not ask the 911 operator if Foskey was armed. Although one or more of these
    observations may be true, “[s]peculation does not create a genuine issue of fact”
    for purposes of summary judgment. Cordoba v. Dillard’s, Inc., 
    419 F.3d 1169
    ,
    1181 (11th Cir. 2005). Moreover, in the context of cases involving allegations of
    excessive force, after-the-fact “[r]econsideration will nearly always reveal that
    something different could have been done if the officer knew the future before it
    4
    We expressly decline to decide whether or not that is true because Foskey’s behavior in
    the seconds that follow his reaching around inside the truck informs our decision in this case.
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    occurred.” Carr v. Tatangelo, 
    338 F.3d 1259
    , 1270 (11th Cir. 2003). “This is what
    we mean when we say we refuse to second-guess the officer.” 
    Id.
     Thus, in the
    light of the clear video evidence of Foskey’s behavior in the minutes (and in
    particular the seconds) before Merritt shot him, Varnadore’s arguments are
    insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact that would defeat Merritt’s
    motion for summary judgment. The video evidence makes it clear to us that no
    reasonable jury could conclude that Merritt lacked an objectively reasonable basis
    for believing that Foskey posed a serious threat to his own safety, and the district
    court did not err in granting Merritt’s motion for summary judgment on that basis.5
    This conclusion is not altered by the fact that Foskey turned out to be
    unarmed. As noted above, “[i]n cases involving excessive force claims it is
    doctrinal gospel that we do not view an officer’s actions with the 20/20 vision of
    hindsight.” Shaw, 884 F.3d at 1100 (citation and internal quotation marks
    omitted). Courts considering an alleged use of excessive force must also consider
    5
    Although it is not necessary in this case to weigh all three of the Graham factors to
    decide in Merritt’s favor, see Shaw, 884 F.3d at 1099 n.5, we note that Foskey’s refusal to
    comply with Merritt’s orders to show his hands further weighs in favor of affirming the district
    court’s decision. Under the circumstances, Foskey’s refusal to show his hands probably means
    that he was “actively resisting arrest” when Merritt shot him. See Graham, 
    490 U.S. at 396
    , 
    109 S. Ct. at 1872
    . But even if he was not resisting arrest as a matter of law, the particular manner in
    which Foskey refused to cooperate with Merritt is crucial to our reasonableness analysis. Foskey
    did not simply refuse Merritt’s orders to show his hands. Instead, he reached inside the cabin of
    his truck, unexpectedly jumped out of the cabin, and quickly raised his hand toward Merritt
    while holding something in his hand. Thus, although we focus our attention primarily on
    Foskey’s behavior as evidenced by the video taken from Merritt’s dashboard camera, it is not
    entirely irrelevant to our objective reasonableness inquiry that Foskey acted in such a manner
    despite Merritt’s orders to show his hands.
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    that officers are often called upon to act “in tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving
    situations.” 
    Id.
     (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Given these
    realities, this Court has held that an officer who uses deadly force may still be
    entitled to qualified immunity even if he mistakenly believed the suspect was
    armed so long as that belief was reasonable under the circumstances. See, e.g.,
    Penley v. Eslinger, 
    605 F.3d 843
    , 846, 851–54 (11th Cir. 2010) (affirming district
    court’s grant of qualified immunity to officer who shot and killed fifteen-year-old
    student after student took classmate hostage and later pointed what turned out to be
    a toy gun at the officer during a standoff inside the school).
    Thus, even though we now know that Foskey had retrieved a CD case and
    two pieces of paper from inside the cabin of his truck—and that he was raising
    those items (and not a gun) from his beltline and toward Merritt after exiting his
    truck—the relevant inquiry remains whether, even though he did not actually have
    a gun, would Foskey “have appeared to reasonable police officers to have been
    gravely dangerous[?]” 
    Id. at 851
    . Our precedents—together with Merritt’s
    dashboard camera video—make it clear that reasonable police officers would have
    viewed Foskey as gravely dangerous given his behavior before and during the
    twenty-second roadside encounter.
    We also decline to disturb the district court’s decision on grounds that
    Merritt did not give Foskey a warning that he planned to use deadly force. Even
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    assuming that Merritt’s orders demanding that Foskey show his hands (the second
    of which was preceded by Merritt aiming his handgun at Foskey) would not have
    been sufficient to warn Foskey that Merritt intended use deadly force, this Court
    has expressly “decline[d] . . . to fashion an inflexible rule that, in order to avoid
    civil liability, an officer must always warn his suspect before firing—particularly
    where, as here, such a warning might easily have cost the officer his life.” Carr,
    
    338 F.3d at
    1269 n.19 (citation omitted). Moreover, the facts of this case are easily
    distinguishable from the facts in Tennessee v. Garner, 
    471 U.S. 1
    , 
    105 S. Ct. 1694
    (1985) (requiring a warning before deadly force is used under certain
    circumstances), which involved a fleeing, unarmed suspect who did not reasonably
    appear to pose an immediate threat to the officer. See Penley, 
    605 F.3d at
    854 n.6
    (distinguishing Garner in the context of a case, more like this one, where the
    suspect “posed a real threat to the lives of officers”). Even assuming arguendo that
    Garner is factually similar to and thus governs this case, we would still affirm the
    district court because it would not have been “feasible” for Merritt to warn that he
    intended to use deadly force against Foskey in the split-second after Foskey
    jumped from his truck.
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    VI. CONCLUSION
    In the light of all of the attendant circumstances of this case, as they might
    be viewed by a reasonable officer in Merritt’s position, 6 we conclude that Merritt
    did not use excessive force in violation of Foskey’s Fourth Amendment rights. In
    reaching this conclusion, we emphasize the manner in which Foskey initially
    exited his truck (after being pursued at high speeds), then reached around inside
    the truck (despite orders to show his hands), and then quickly jumped out of the
    truck (raising several unidentified objects from his beltline toward Merritt as if
    pulling a gun from his waist). In addition to the clear video evidence, we further
    consider that an officer in Merritt’s position would have witnessed all of this
    behavior knowing that Foskey was under the influence and suicidal. Taken
    together, these facts clearly indicate that a reasonable officer would have been
    justified in believing that Foskey posed an immediate and serious threat to his or
    her own safety. Because he did not violate Foskey’s Fourth Amendment rights,
    Merritt is entitled to qualified immunity. 7 The order of the district court granting
    6
    To be clear, we do not decide in Merritt’s favor because of his testimony that he “just
    thought [Foskey] had a gun.” Rather, we decide in Merritt’s favor because, based on the record
    before us, it was objectively reasonable for an officer in Merritt’s situation to believe that Foskey
    had a gun and thus posed an immediate and serious threat to his safety.
    7
    Given this conclusion, and given Varnadore’s admissions before the district court and
    this Court that the federal and state law claims should rise or fall together, we also hold that the
    district court did not err when it granted Merritt’s motion for summary judgment with respect to
    the state law claims asserted in this case.
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    Merritt’s motion for summary judgment and dismissing Varnadore’s claims is
    therefore
    AFFIRMED. 8
    8
    Any other arguments asserted on appeal by Varnadore are rejected without need for
    further discussion.
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