Oakland police can be sued for engaging in a high-speed chase, with no sirens or warning lights, that ended in a crash killing one bystander and seriously injuring others, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The 2-1 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a rare instance of a court rejecting police officers’ claims of “qualified immunity,” a rule declared by the Supreme Court in 1982 that shields officers from civil damage suits unless a previous case had found police liable based on virtually identical facts.
During the early morning hours in June 2022, the court said, officers Jimmy Marin-Coronel and Walid Abdelaziz spotted a driver who they believed had taken part in an illegal car rally performing dangerous stunts on public streets. They pursued the driver on city streets at speeds of over 60 mph without turning on their siren or warning lights or alerting their dispatcher, the court said…