SEATTLE – A panel of judges at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals won’t dismiss key elements of a lawsuit filed against two Seattle police officers who shot and killed an Uptown man in 2019, upholding a finding that the officers had no reason to believe he posed an imminent threat when they killed him.
The unanimous ruling, published earlier this week, turned aside an appeal by the city of Seattle and police officers Christopher Myers and Ryan Beecroft, upholding a 2023 trial court order refusing to grant the officers qualified immunity for shooting 31-year-old Ryan Smith after kicking in the door of his Uptown apartment. Smith, who was depressed, intoxicated and suffering from a mental crisis, was holding a pocketknife at the time.
Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects public employees from lawsuits alleging they violated someone’s civil rights unless it can be shown that the right was “clearly established” at the time…