Maria Arenas v. John Calhoun

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

While patrolling the administrative segregation unit of a state prison, Officer John Calhoun saw that inmate Richard Tavara was hanging from a noose around his neck with a bedsheet suspended from the ceiling sprinkler head. Because he was unable to see Tavara's feet through the small window in the cell door, Calhoun could not tell whether Tavara was actually hanging and in need of medical assistance or was staging suicide to draw officers into the cell for an ambush. Instead of rushing into a potentially dangerous situation, Calhoun immediately summoned backup…