BALTIMORE (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge has again thrown out a wrongful death lawsuit against Baltimore County police over the 2019 shooting of Jamaal Taylor.
Federal judge Richard Bennett had already ruled against Taylor's estate and family members but gave plaintiffs a chance to amend their complaint. He tossed the claims for a second time in an opinion delivered Feb. 3.
The ruling rejects claims for unreasonable force and negligence as well as so-called Monell violations, which involve whether Baltimore County policies led to the shooting of Taylor.
"(A) reasonable officer could have believed that Taylor posed an immediate threat to the civilians in the vehicles," Bennett wrote.
"Although Taylor was not actively resisting arrest, his failure to comply with officers' repeated commands that he 'drop the knife' favored the use of some force."
County police were told Taylor had assaulted several people at Hunt Valley Towne Centre, and body cam footage shows them shooting Taylor while he walked toward traffic and after he refused to drop a box cutter.
The defendants were accused of failing to handle the situation, specifically Taylor's mental health issues, properly. A five-count complaint named Baltimore County and officers Tyler Wise and Chris Brocato as defendants.
According to the plaintiffs' complaint, Wise and Brocato responded to multiple 911 calls at Shawan Road in Hunt Valley on Sept. 29, 2019.
They claim that the officers had prior knowledge of Taylor's mental illnesses and that they immediately opened fired on him upon arriving.
The plaintiffs allege that Taylor, who was 31 years old and believed to be in possession of a knife, was far enough away that he did not pose a threat to their safety.
The plaintiffs also allege that Taylor was walking slowly away from the officers, which allowed them time to communicate and de-escalate the situation or call the Baltimore County Crisis Response Unit.
The plaintiffs claim that the officers' actions of aggressively escalating the situation by immediately drawing their weapons led to Taylor's death and the violation of his constitutional rights.
But Bennett found otherwise. Reasonable officers would have believed Taylor was willing to harm civilians with his box cutter because he already had.
"Although Officer Defendants do not assert that there were any civilians on the street outside of their cars, Taylor's use of the box cutter to stab multiple civilians earlier that day would certainly lead a reasonable officer to believe that Taylor would attack civilians inside their vehicles to steal a car and flee," Bennett wrote.
The facts indicate Taylor intended to approach civilian vehicles with a weapon, he wrote.
"Moreover, a reasonable officer in Officer Defendants' position would have believed that if Taylor continued to approach the civilian vehicles and suddenly attempted to attack someone inside a car, the officer would be unable to shoot without endangering the civilian further," Bennett wrote.