Nicholas Criscuolo v. Grant County

MEMORANDUM

Nicholas Criscuolo appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Grant County Deputy Sheriff Beau Lamens and Grant County in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action arising from La-mens’s fatal shooting of Criscuolo’s dog, Slyder. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

1. The district court erred in finding at the summary judgment stage that Lamens’s killing of Slyder was objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Lamens intruded on Criscuolo’s Fourth Amendment interests by killing Slyder. San Jose Charter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club v. City of San Jose, 402 F.3d 962, 975 (9th Cir.2005). Viewing the totality of the circumstances in the light most favorable to Criscuolo, the nonmovant, the killing was not reasonably necessary to protect the safety of Maddox, the police dog.

A reasonable trier of fact could find that Lamens unreasonably shot Slyder after the dogs separated, because Slyder posed no imminent threat to Maddox even though the events occurred rapidly. Cris-cuolo and other witnesses claim that right before Lamens fired, Slyder was not springing toward…