Joseph Levesque v. City of Mesa

MEMORANDUM

On February 21, 2008, Joseph Levesque was shot with an automatic assault rifle by Officer Kohler of the City of Mesa Police Department. On February 12, 2009, Joseph Levesque and his wife, Sheryl Levesque, filed a lawsuit against defendants, the City of Mesa, Officer Kohler, Officer Glover, Sergeant Ivey, and fictitious defendants, alleging inter alia excessive force in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . On August 2, 2010, the district court (Bolton, J.) heard oral argument on defendants’ motions for summary judgment and on August 10, 2010 the district court issued an order granting defendants’ motions for summary judgment. Plaintiff-appellants now appeal the district court’s grant of defendants’ motions for summary judgment. We affirm.

We review the district court’s grant of a summary judgment motion de novo. A police officer’s use of force is governed by the reasonableness standard set forth in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395 , 109 S.Ct. 1865 , 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989). “[T]he ‘reasonableness’ inquiry in an excessive force case is an objective one: the question is whether the officers’ actions are ‘objectively reasonable’ in light of the facts and circumstances…