Is there any protection from civil suits in a case like this? I see that Illinois does not have a Stand your Ground Law. Would such a law protect you in a case like this in Indiana?
Illinois does not have a Stand Your Ground law. While a person may use deadly force in self-defense with no duty to retreat, this rule has been created by past judicial decisions and may only be raised during a prosecution as an affirmative defense. Illinois has none of the immunity laws, pre-trial hearings, or other negative public safety provisions that characterize a true Stand Your Ground law.
From the Illinois Public Safety website:
If there are no immunity laws, I assume the guy can get sued there.
I just read through the Indiana law it would appear we should be protected here.We have "immunity laws" and that doesn't stop it from happening.
I just read through the Indiana law it would appear we should be protected here.
Sec. 2. (a) A person is justified in using reasonable force against another person to protect the person or a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person:
(1) is justified in using deadly force; and
(2) does not have a duty to retreat;
if the person reasonably believes that that force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to the person or a third person or the commission of a forcible felony. No person in this state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting the person or a third person by reasonable means necessary.
Do the courts not consider civil suit as legal jeopardy then?
And here we go. You'll be mistaken as another bad guy.
Is there any protection from civil suits in a case like this? I see that Illinois does not have a Stand your Ground Law. Would such a law protect you in a case like this in Indiana?
We have "immunity laws" and that doesn't stop it from happening.
And you might be. Off duty/plain clothes cops have been killed or injured in this exact scenario.
It can happen, but it is anecdotal.
Good read, thanks for sharing BB.Right. And if you're one of the 'anecdotes' you probably won't enjoy it. The important part is the first part, it can happen. There are steps you can take to minimize the risk.
https://www.policeone.com/gun-legis...e-When-the-armed-citizen-is-in-the-crossfire/
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[/FONT][FONT=&]“Keeping commands simple and consistent with other officers at the scene can avoid confusion. If one suspect hears the command to “drop it” or “get on the ground” from Officer A and “don’t move” from Officer B, the suspect will delay complying while both officers perceive non-compliance.”
We’ve all seen these videos of multiple LEO shouting out to a person, this really needs to be addressed in training. [/FONT]
At least on IMPD, we do address it via training. Since making sergeant, I've been on two situations where the suspect had just fired shots at someone. One was contained and we were just going to hold for SWAT. The other was in the open and we were going to do a take down. In both situations I designated one officer to be the only one giving voice commands. It reduces the confusion on the other end, and it also frees up the other officers mental tasking to do other things. If I'm running the show, I'm never going to be the talker since talking and listening takes up more computing power then you'd think.
I'd also set the default verbal command to "don't move" since it applies in basically any situation, once things slow down and the person is compliant you can get into specifics of disarming them, moving them, etc.