PAM V. CITY OF EVANSVILLE, 2025 WL 2738858 (7th Cir. 2025)
In Evansville, Indiana, Heather Geier called 911 to report a Black man wearing a white shirt and red pants in her backyard, brandishing a handgun. The man was a stranger to her, she told the dispatcher, and he had pointed the pistol at her dog and then aimed it at her. As Officer Cory Offerman was approaching from the corner near Geier’s home, dispatch relayed that the man had shot Geier’s dog. Officer Offerman acknowledged he did not hear any gunshots, despite being only 100 to 200 feet from the house at that time.
Officer Offerman was in an alley behind Geier’s home when he saw Rodriquez D’Aundre Pam standing on Geier’s back porch. Offerman commanded Pam to “show me your hands” several times. After roughly 14 seconds without compliance, Officer Offerman moved closer to the home and commanded Pam to “get on the ground.” Meanwhile, Pam was trying to work the doorknob on Geier’s back door. Officer Offerman continued to command Pam to get on the ground, without any response from the subject.
Once Officer Offerman was in the backyard, Pam turned toward him and put his hands in his pockets. Officer Offerman immediately yelled for Pam to keep his hands visible, which he did. Officer John McQuay ran up to the right of Officer Offerman and shouted, “I’m going to shoot your ass.”
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Officer McQuay used his flashlight to light up the man. Pam suddenly raised his left hand toward the officers while keeping his right hand at his side. Within a second, both officers fired multiple times. As Pam fell to the ground, a black gun rolled away from his body. Pam died and his estate sued the officers.
The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the officers, ruling it was indisputable that Pam pointed a gun at the officers before they fired. Pam’s estate appealed.
Postmortem toxicology revealed Pam had a blood alcohol content of .310 at the time he was shot. The investigation raised questions about whether Pam had held his gun in his right hand or his left. Clear video, the appellate court noted, can be helpful in resolving factual disputes. However, “there is nothing special about video evidence.” In fact, the panel noted, “Videos that are ‘unclear, incomplete, and fairly open to varying interpretations’ cannot resolve evidentiary matters short of trial.” The appellate court held the blurry video in this case could not resolve the question of which hand was holding the gun during those crucial moments.
Despite the inconclusive video, other evidence supported the grant of qualified immunity to the officers. “Under qualified immunity’s shroud,” the court stated, “Offerman and McQuay do not need to have correctly identified Pam with a weapon; they needed to harbor a reasonable perception that he held one.” Several facts support that reasonable perception. The video showed that just seconds before the shooting, Pam placed his right hand in his pocket. He then assumed a stance with his right arm behind his body, and his left arm raised to his chest, consistent with holding a gun. Then, just after the shots, a gun fell in front of Pam’s body, which officers recovered. No one disputed Officers Offerman and McQuay both believed Pam had aimed a gun at Geier just minutes before the officers encountered him.
The appellate judges reminded that “the law does not require officers in a tense and dangerous situation to wait until the moment a suspect uses a deadly weapon to act to stop the suspect.” Indeed, the panel made the obvious observation that “No citizen can fairly expect to draw a gun on police without risking tragic consequences.” The court held Officers Offerman and McQuay were entitled to qualified immunity because their perception and response did not violate clearly established law. The court affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment.
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