#BipolarLivesMatter
Bipolar Man Tased and Choked to Death
His “Crime?” Escaping from a Psych ER. He held a lamp post too tightly.
This story is one in an ongoing series of articles from different parts of the country. Previous stories include this case from Massachusetts, and a story out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Ronald Armstrong suffered from bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. On April 23, 2011, he had been off his prescribed medication for five days and was poking holes through the skin on his leg to “let the air out.” His sister convinced Armstrong to accompany her to Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He willingly went to the hospital and checked in, but “during the course of the evaluation he apparently became frightened and eloped from the” emergency department.
Based on that “flight” and Armstrong’s sister’s report about his odd behavior over the previous week, the examining doctor judged Armstrong a danger to himself and issued involuntary commitment papers to compel his return. Armstrong’s doctor could have, but did not, designate him a danger to others, checking only the box that reads “mentally ill and dangerous to self” on the commitment form.
The Pinehurst police were called as soon as Armstrong left the hospital, and three cops responded. Officer Gatling appeared on the scene first, followed a minute or two later by Sergeant Sheppard. Lieutenant McDonald arrived about ten minutes after Sheppard. Armstrong was located near an intersection near the hospital’s main entrance. The commitment order had not yet been finalize, so Gatling and Sheppard spoke with Armstrong. Everything was calm and cooperative at this point.
Armstrong was acting strangely, however. When Gatling first started talking to him, Armstrong was wandering across an active roadway near the hospital’s driveway. Gatling convinced Armstrong to “withdraw to the relative safety on the roadside, but Armstrong then proceeded to eat grass and dandelions, chew on a “gauze-like substance,” and put cigarettes out on his tongue while the police officers waited for the commitment order.
Immediately following the finalization of the involuntary commitment order, Armstrong was seated on the ground, “anchored to the base of a stop sign post, in “defiance” of the order. The three cops were surrounding Armstrong, struggling to remove him from the post. Armstrong’s sister and two hospital security guards were there, a total of six people trying to get Armstrong to return to the hospital.
The cops did not attempt to engage in further conversation with Armstrong. Instead, just thirty seconds or so after the officers told Armstrong his commitment order was final, McDonald instructed Gatling to prepare to tase Armstrong. Gatling drew his taser, set it to “drive stun mode,” and announced that, if Armstrong did not let go of the post, he would be tased.
That warning had no effect, so Gatling deployed the taser — five separate times over a period of two minutes. Rather than having its desired effect, the tasing actually increased Armstrong’s resistance. Shortly after the tasing ceased, the two hospital security guards jumped in to assist the three cops trying to pull Armstrong off his post. That group of five successfully removed Armstrong and laid him facedown on the ground.
During the struggle, Armstrong complained that he was being choked. His sister saw that the cops “pulled his collar like they were choking him” during the struggle. With Armstrong separated from his post, the cops restrained him. McDonald and Sheppard pinned Armstrong down by placing a knee on his back and standing on his back, respectively, while handcuffs were applied. Armstrong continued to kick at Sheppard (who just stood on Armstrong’s back), so the cops shackled his legs too.
The officers then stood up to collect themselves. They left Armstrong facedown in the grass with his hands cuffed behind his back and his legs shackled. At this point, Armstrong stopped moving. His sister was the first to notice he was not responsive, so she asked the officers to check on him. When the officers flipped him over, his skin had turned a bluish color and he did not appear to be breathing. Armstrong was taken to the hospital and immediately pronounced dead.
It took the cops just 6.5 minutes from when the commitment was final until they had to call the EMS because he was blue.
The Estate of Armstrong sued the cops on April 16, 2013 in the Superior Court of Moore County, North Carolina, alleging that the officers used excessive force, in violation of Armstrong’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights when he was seized. The cops “removed” the case to the more conservative federal court, the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
The District Court dismissed the case against the cops on summary judgment, on January 27, 2015. The Court said: “It is highly doubtful that the evidence establishes a constitutional violation at all, but assuming it does,” the cops are entitled to qualified immunity. The Estate appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The court hears appeals from the nine federal district courts in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Unlike the District Court, the Court of Appeals first asked whether the cops violated Armstrong’s constitutional rights. “In this case, the answer is yes. Viewed in the light most favorable to [the Estate], the record before us establishes that, when seizing Armstrong,” the cops “used unreasonably excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
“Under these facts, when Officer Gatling deployed his taser, Armstrong was a mentally ill man being seized for his own protection, was seated on the ground, was hugging a post to ensure his immobility, was surrounded by three police officers and two hospital security guards, and had failed to submit to a lawful seizure for only 30 seconds. A reasonable officer would have perceived a static stalemate with few, if any, exigencies — not an immediate danger so sever that the officer must beget the exact harm the seizure was intended to avoid.” So far, so good, right? Sounds like at least the Estate of Armstrong will get some damages for the murder by cop. You must not be familiar with the system.
“We, nevertheless, affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment” in favor of the cops because the Court of Appeals concluded that the cops “are entitled to qualified immunity.” Qualified immunity “shields government officials from liability for civil damages, provided their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights within the knowledge of a reasonable person.” A right satisfies this standard when it is “sufficiently clear that every reasonable office would have understood that what he is doing violates that right. The court concluded that “Armstrong’s right not to be tased while offering stationary and non-violent restance to a lawful seizure was not clearly established on April 23, 2011.” The court concluded its opinion by noting that “law enforcement officers should now be on notice that such taser use violates the Fourth Amendment.” The Court affirmed the dismissal on summary judgment.
The Estate of Ronald H. Armstrong v. The Village of Pinehurst, Officer Jerry McDonald, Officer Tina S. Sheppard and Officer Arthur Lee Gatling, Jr., Case No, 15–1191 (Published opinion) (4th Cir. 2016).
For more on this subject, please see the #BipolarLivesMatter publication or the website for #BipolarLivesMatter.
