Police shootings
Yes, it can be a claim. Deadly force against a person who is running away is unreasonable unless the officer had probable cause to believe the person posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury. In every other shooting the question is whether the force was objectively reasonable on the totality of the circumstances, and since 2025 that means the whole encounter, not only the last second. If the person died, the claim passes to the estate. This page goes through the law, the defenses, what other families have recovered, and the clocks.
A police shooting is a claim when the use of deadly force was objectively unreasonable. The Supreme Court set the floor in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985): deadly force against a fleeing suspect is unreasonable unless the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect "poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others." A person who is running away and is a danger to no one may not be shot to stop the escape.
It is not a claim merely because someone was shot, or because the person turned out to be unarmed. Officers may use deadly force against a real and immediate threat. These cases are decided on what the officer could see, how much time there was, what came before, and what the physical evidence says about where everyone was standing.
How it happens
- Shots at a person running away. Someone runs from a stop, unarmed or with nothing in hand, and an officer fires at their back.
- Seconds after arrival. Officers pull up, shout a command and fire almost at once, before the person could have understood or obeyed, often at someone holding a phone, a tool or nothing.
- The officer who steps into danger. An officer moves in front of or onto a car that is leaving, then fires at the driver and describes the car as the threat.
- Shots into a moving car. Officers fire into a vehicle with passengers inside, on a street with other people on it.
- Shots that continue. The person is down or has dropped what they were holding, and the firing goes on.
- The encounter nobody could read. A plainclothes officer in an unmarked car confronts someone at night without identifying himself, and the person's alarm is then treated as the threat.
The claim
The claim is excessive force under the Fourth Amendment, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. A shooting is a seizure. Applying physical force with intent to restrain, such as shooting, is a seizure even if the person escapes (Torres v. Madrid, 592 U.S. 306 (2021)), so a person who was hit and kept running has the same claim as a person who fell.
The standard. Force during a stop or arrest is judged by objective reasonableness: the severity of the crime, whether the person posed an immediate threat, and whether the person was actively resisting or fleeing (Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989)). For deadly force against a fleeing person, Garner supplies the specific rule quoted above.
The whole encounter counts. Some courts used to look only at the instant the trigger was pulled. On May 15, 2025 a unanimous Supreme Court rejected that "moment of threat" rule. Reasonableness is judged on the totality of the circumstances with no temporal cutoff (Barnes v. Felix, No. 23-1239, 605 U.S. ___ (2025)). What the officers knew when they arrived, what they said, how fast they closed the distance and whether there was time to do anything else are all in the picture.
When the person died. Whether a Section 1983 claim survives a death is governed by state survivorship law, borrowed through 42 U.S.C. § 1988(a), unless that law is inconsistent with federal law (Robertson v. Wegmann, 436 U.S. 584 (1978)). In New York a claim for personal injury survives the death of the injured person, and the personal representative may sue for wrongful death within two years of the death (N.Y. EPTL §§ 11-3.2(b), 5-4.1). The family's first legal step is usually getting a representative appointed, because the representative is the plaintiff. See death in custody for the same rules applied to jails.
Who else is liable. Officers who were present and had a realistic opportunity to stop a constitutional violation can be liable for not doing so; see failure to intervene. The city or county is liable under Section 1983 only through its own policy, custom or deliberately indifferent training (Monell v. Dep't of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978); City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989)). Under state law the employer can usually be reached more directly, which is why the state-law notice periods at the bottom of this page matter.
The record in a shooting case
Body-worn and dashboard camera footage, radio traffic, the 911 call, the autopsy, shell casing locations and the officers' first statements decide these cases. Much of it sits with the agency that employs the officer. A written preservation request goes out early, and the evidence page explains how each state handles footage.
What they will argue
There was a threat. The defense in every shooting is that the person had, reached for, or appeared to have a weapon, or was using a car as one. The Supreme Court has sided with officers where the danger was real: firing 15 shots to end a dangerous high-speed chase did not violate the Fourth Amendment (Plumhoff v. Rickard, 572 U.S. 765 (2014)), and ramming a fleeing car to end a chase that endangered others was reasonable (Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372 (2007)). The reply is evidence that the threat was not there, or had passed.
Qualified immunity. Even where the shooting was unreasonable, the officer is shielded unless the right was clearly established on similar facts (Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)), and a court may decide that without deciding whether the shooting was lawful (Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009)). Plumhoff itself rested on qualified immunity in the alternative. Garner has been the law since 1985, but the defense is argued at the level of the particular facts. See qualified immunity. For NYPD officers, New York City law removes the defense for its own excessive force claim (N.Y.C. Admin. Code §§ 8-802, 8-804).
The officer was never charged. A prosecutor's decision not to charge asks whether a crime can be proved. The civil claim asks whether the force was objectively reasonable under Graham, which is a different question. The outcomes do not track each other in either direction: in the Corey Jones case below the officer was convicted, and the civil case still took until 2023 to settle.
The survivor's own conviction. If the person who was shot was later convicted of assaulting the officer, Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), bars a damages claim that would necessarily imply the conviction is invalid.
State-law immunities and caps. In Florida an officer has no personal tort liability under state law absent bad faith, malicious purpose or wanton and willful disregard of human rights or safety (Fla. Stat. § 768.28(9)(a)), and state-law damages against the agency are capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, with the excess payable only by a legislative claim bill (§ 768.28(5)(a)). In Pennsylvania a local agency's state-law liability is capped at $500,000 per occurrence and limited to negligence exceptions (42 Pa.C.S. §§ 8542, 8553). None of those caps applies to the federal claim against the officer.
What people have recovered
Family of Corey Jones
A stranded motorist was shot by a plainclothes officer in 2015. The officer was convicted. The settlement was at the limit of the city's insurance.
Source: CBS News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Dontrell Stephens
Shot and paralyzed in 2013. A federal jury returned a verdict of about $22.4 million in 2016. What was actually paid came four years later through a claim bill, which shows the gap between a verdict and what the Florida cap lets a plaintiff collect.
Source: WPTV. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Seth Adams
An unarmed man was shot by a sergeant in 2012. The case settled after a jury deadlocked.
Source: CBS News Miami. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Jerame Reid
A fatal shooting during a traffic stop in 2014.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Estate of Maurice Gordon
A fatal State Police shooting on the Garden State Parkway in 2020.
Source: News 12 New Jersey. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Walter Wallace Jr.
He was shot during a mental health crisis in 2020.
Source: WHYY. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
These are other people's cases. Two fatal shootings in the same state settled years apart for amounts that differ by a factor of about five. What a case is worth depends on the injury, the evidence and the defenses, and in Florida on who pays and under which law. See what a case is worth, and the state lists at Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The clock
A family in the first weeks after a shooting is not thinking about a notice of claim. The state-law clocks run anyway, and the shortest is 90 days.
| State | Federal claim, Section 1983 | State-law claim: notice | State-law claim: suit |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | Three years (N.Y. CPLR 214(5); Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235 (1989)). The NYPD city-law claim is also three years (N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-806) | Notice of claim within 90 days; in a wrongful death case, 90 days from the appointment of the estate's representative (N.Y. Gen. Mun. Law § 50-e(1)(a)). Claims against the State go to the Court of Claims within 90 days (Court of Claims Act § 10) | One year and 90 days; wrongful death within two years of the death (§ 50-i(1); EPTL § 5-4.1) |
| New Jersey | Two years (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2), the same for the Civil Rights Act claim, which needs no tort notice (Owens v. Feigin, 194 N.J. 607 (2008)) | Tort Claims Act notice within 90 days (N.J.S.A. 59:8-8) | No suit until six months after the notice; barred after two years (N.J.S.A. 59:8-8) |
| Florida | Four years (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(3)) | Written claim to the agency within three years; two years for wrongful death (Fla. Stat. § 768.28(6)) | The agency has six months to act; suit within four years (§ 768.28(6), (14)) |
| Pennsylvania | Two years (42 Pa.C.S. § 5524; Kach v. Hose, 589 F.3d 626 (3d Cir. 2009)) | Written notice to the government unit within six months (42 Pa.C.S. § 5522(a)) | Two years for personal injury or death (42 Pa.C.S. § 5524) |
No state notice rule applies to the federal claim (Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131 (1988)). The New York, New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania pages go through each rule.
If the person who was shot survived and is facing a charge from the same incident, they should talk to their defense lawyer before describing the shooting to anyone, including us. See the criminal case and the civil case.
Police pursuits
Chases, ramming and shots at fleeing cars, and what bystanders can claim.
Police pursuits →Mental health crisis calls
When the family called for help and the response was a weapon.
Crisis calls →Death in custody
Who brings the claim, what the estate can recover, and the clocks after a death.
Death in custody →Common questions
The officer says he feared for his life. Does that end the case?
No. The test is objective. Under Graham v. Connor the question is whether a reasonable officer on the scene would have seen an immediate threat, not what this officer says he felt. After Barnes v. Felix (2025), the court looks at the totality of the circumstances with no cutoff in time, so what happened in the minutes before the shot is part of the analysis.
My family member died. Who brings the claim?
The estate, through a court-appointed representative. Whether a Section 1983 claim survives a death is governed by state survivorship law under Robertson v. Wegmann. In New York a personal injury claim survives the death, and the representative has two years from the death to sue for wrongful death. For the state-law claim against a city, the 90-day notice of claim runs from the representative's appointment.
He was shot, survived and got away. Is that still a claim?
Yes. A person who is shot and survives has the same Fourth Amendment claim. In Torres v. Madrid the Supreme Court held that applying physical force with intent to restrain, such as shooting a person, is a seizure even if the person gets away.
A Florida jury awarded millions. Why would the family collect less?
Because Florida caps state-law damages against government bodies at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, and anything above that requires a claim bill passed by the Legislature. In the Dontrell Stephens case a federal jury returned a verdict of about $22.4 million in 2016, and $6 million was paid through a claim bill signed in 2020.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.