Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 | 12:19 p.m.
CARSON CITY — A federal appeals court says a Metro Police officer has qualified immunity protecting him from a civil lawsuit after he shot and killed a man in 2010 in Las Vegas.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to grant a summary judgment in favor of Officer Sean Miller, who fatally shot Anthony Brenes at a Speedee Mart. The decision overturned the ruling of the U.S. District Court, which refused to grant the motion by Miller.
Lydia Vasquez-Brenes and Richardo Brenes, the widow and father of the victim, filed suit, claiming Miller violated the civil rights of Brenes and seeking a civil trial.
The appeals court, in a 2-1 decision on Nov. 10, said, “This case involves the use of a deadly force on a large man wielding a blunt object who continued to advance on Miller after repeated warnings and after being tased twice and shot twice with beanbag rounds.”
The decision said that even assuming that Miller’s conduct violated Brenes’s constitutional rights, he did not violate clearly established law.”
The widow and father argued there were disputed facts that merited a trial.
Judge John Owens, who dissented, said a jury should decide the “many unanswered questions” in the case.
He said Brenes walked around a parking lot with a cane and at one point threw a rock. Less than three minutes after police arrived, Brenes was dead.
Owens said a jury should decide if the officer reasonably believed deadly force was needed to save his own life.
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