Wichita officer’s fatal shooting of Iraq War vet with PTSD was reasonable, judge says

A judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit against the City of Wichita, finding that police officers’ actions in the fatal shooting of an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD were reasonable.

The shooting of Icarus Randolph – a 26-year-old Marine veteran killed in front of his family on July 4, 2014 – was “a horribly tragic incident” for all involved, Sedgwick County District Court Judge Bruce Brown said.

Still, Brown ruled that the city and the officers who responded to a 911 call at Randolph’s home are shielded in many ways from liability under the law.

The judge said the facts didn’t support the argument that Officers Ryan Snyder and Danny Brown provoked Randolph or that they were reckless or malicious. The lawsuit had contended that Snyder in particular escalated the situation by folding his arms and arguing with the family in the front yard while Randolph was inside.

Brown noted that laws give officers discretion in how they react to rapidly developing incidents. The Wichita police policy on dealing with mentally ill people allows officers to use their discretion, Brown said.

The facts, the judge said, are that in a few moments as the officers stood with Randolph’s family in the front yard, he burst through a door and strode out with a “thousand-yard stare” while holding an open knife in his hand. Snyder backed up as Randolph continued, and the officer fired a Taser stun gun first, noticed the knife and fired his handgun when the Taser failed to stop Randolph. Randolph’s relatives backed up and moved out the way as well, indicating that they also recognized it was a potentially dangerous situation, the judge said.

Snyder had to make a split-second decision, Brown said.

The key, under the law, is whether an officer “reasonably believes” he has to use deadly force, the judge said. It’s what the officer senses at the moment, without benefit of hindsight.

Brown rejected the entire lawsuit, filed by Randolph’s estate.

Tears streamed down the face of one of Randolph’s sisters as the judge finished giving his decision.

Family members of Randolph, who struggled with PTSD, claimed in the lawsuit that witnessing the shooting of their loved one has caused them to suffer PTSD as well. Before Randolph was shot, his family was trying to get him safely taken to a hospital so he could be treated for a mental health crisis.

Before the family sued, they filed a notice with the city that they were seeking $5 million.

Officer Snyder shot Randolph as his mother, sisters and other relatives watched in the small front yard of the family home in south Wichita.

Attorneys for the city had argued in their motion that the lawsuit should be dismissed on multiple grounds, including that Snyder’s tasing and shooting of Randolph was “objectively reasonable,” that Snyder fired the fatal shots at Randolph “when he aggressively approached ... with a knife.”

One of the attorneys representing the city, Samuel Green, told Judge Brown at an earlier hearing that Snyder had to act “on the fly in a quickly evolving situation.”

The officer waited until Randolph was within a few steps before he used his Taser, then realized Randolph had a knife and thought he was going to be stabbed when he fired, Green said. “That’s enough for self defense,” Green said.

There was “nothing in this case that’s remotely close to recklessness,” he said.

The family’s lawyers contended that Snyder and Brown didn’t follow Police Department Policy 519 on dealing with mental health crises. The family’s lawyers argued that the officers – mainly Snyder – escalated the tension.

They claimed that under the policy, the officers should have removed the family members from the front yard and given him more space. But instead, they say, Snyder argued with the family, provoking Randolph to come out of the house because he apparently thought his relatives were in danger.

Although Randolph had a knife in hand, “he was not using it in any way that would threaten a reasonable man,” the family’s lawyers argued in a court document.

It was Officer Snyder who stepped into the path of the mentally ill man, causing the situation to escalate, attorney John Kitchens had argued before Brown.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Wichita officer’s fatal shooting of Iraq War vet with PTSD was reasonable, judge says."