WASHINGTON — A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday revived a civil rights lawsuit against a Houston-area police officer who shot a man to death during a traffic stop over unpaid tolls.
The justices ordered the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take a new look at the case of Ashtian Barnes, who died in his rental car in April 2016 on the shoulder of the Sam Houston Tollway in Houston.
Barnes was shot by Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Deputy Roberto Felix Jr., who jumped on the sill of the driver’s door of Barnes’ car as it began to pull away from the stop. Felix fired twice in two seconds because he “reasonably feared for his life,” his lawyers wrote in their Supreme Court brief.
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Lower courts had dismissed the excessive force lawsuit filed against Felix by Barnes’ mother, Janice Hughes. The issue before the justices was whether those lower courts used the right standard, evaluating Felix’s actions only at the “moment of the threat” that caused him to shoot Barnes.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that courts should look at the “totality of the circumstances” to evaluate the suit against Felix. The standard embraced by the court Thursday often will be friendlier to plaintiffs in civil rights cases.
Barnes had been driving to pick up his girlfriend’s daughter from day care when he was pulled over by Felix, who received a radio message that the license plate on Barnes’ car had unpaid tolls associated with it. Barnes’ girlfriend had rented the car, and Barnes was unaware of the outstanding tolls, according to court records.