Background
Douglas Diamond was shot and killed during a welfare check by Clackamas County and City of Sandy law enforcement officers. Diamond’s estate sued the City of Sandy, Officers Michael Boyes and William Wetherbee, Clackamas County, and Sheriff’s Sergeant Sean Collinson, alleging violations of Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The district court denied qualified immunity, finding triable issues of fact regarding excessive force and holding Sergeant Collinson liable under the integral participant doctrine.
The court’s reasoning
The Ninth Circuit reviewed the qualified immunity decision de novo but limited its scope to the second prong of the analysis: whether the law was clearly established. The court found no precedent placing the constitutional question beyond debate regarding the use of less-lethal force to disarm an irrational, suicidal individual armed with a loaded handgun in his pocket. The court noted that Diamond repeatedly refused to comply with orders to show his hands from a sweatshirt pocket containing a gun. The court also rejected the integral participant doctrine claim against Sergeant Collinson, finding he had no reason to know an unconstitutional shooting would occur and that the officers’ plan to use less-lethal force with lethal cover was reasonable given the dangerous circumstances.
Because no case clearly established a Fourth Amendment right violated by [Officer Wetherbee or Sergeant Collinson] to deploy less-lethal force to disarm Diamond, [they are] entitled to qualified immunity.
Fuhr v. City of Seattle, 175 F.4th 1081, 1086 (9th Cir. 2026)
What it means going forward
The case proceeds in district court on excessive force, failure to train, and state law claims against the City of Sandy, County of Clackamas, and Officer Boyes. Officers Wetherbee and Collinson are granted qualified immunity.