District of Columbia v. Jackson

FARRELL, Associate Judge:

Terrence Hicks was shot to death by police officers who had responded to the home of his mother and found him holding her hostage at knifepoint. In subsequent wrongful death and survival actions brought against the District of Columbia and individual police officers by the estates of Hicks and his mother (who died of natural causes before trial), 1 liability turned essentially on whether the officers had used excessive force to immobilize Hicks — ultimately by killing him — after they saw him wield the knife as though about to stab his mother in the chest. The jury…