Billington

We consider whether a police officer is entitled to qualified immunity for shooting and killing a motorist.

*1180 FACTS

The police officer sued in this case, David Smith, is a detective with the Boise City Police Department. When he came off his shift on the night at issue, he did a stint as a private security guard (as department policy allowed) at a Neil Diamond concert, where his wife and daughter were ushers. Late that evening, as he drove them home in his unmarked police car (also as allowed by department policy), the decedent in this case, Ryan Hennes-sey, passed him, tires squealing. Hennes-sey overcorrected when he pulled back into his lane, almost hit a parked car, overcorrected again and careened into the oncoming lane, and almost had a head-on collision with an approaching car. Detective Smith estimated that Hennessey was driving 70 m.p.h. in a 30 or 35 m.p.h. residential zone. 2 Detective Smith turned on his blue police fights and gave chase. Detective Smith did not know it, but Hen-nessey had been in a hit-and-run collision minutes before, and officers were already looking for Hennessey when Detective Smith radioed the dispatcher.

Instead of pulling over…