Alvarado-Escobedo v. United States

Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided May 18, 2020·No. 19-2048·Unpublished

Opinion

FILED

United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT May 18, 2020

Christopher M. Wolpert

Clerk of Court

HERMELINDA ALVARADO- ESCOBEDO, as personal representative of the estate of Edgar Camacho-Alvarado, deceased, and as natural mother of A.M., and I.M., minors,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v. No. 19-2048 (D.C. Nos. 1:16-CV-01235-NF-MLC, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; PAUL 1:18-CV-00169-NF-MLC) HERNANDEZ, individually and in his (D. N.M.) official capacity as Deputy United States Marshal,

Defendants - Appellees.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

Before HOLMES, PHILLIPS, and CARSON, Circuit Judges.

Plaintiffs are the mother and siblings of Edgar Camacho-Alvarado (Camacho).

On February 20, 2016, Camacho was shot and killed by defendant Paul Hernandez, a Deputy United States Marshal. Plaintiff Hermelinda Alvarado-Escobedo, Camacho’s

*

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously to honor the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.

mother and personal representative, brought a wrongful death claim against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and an action against Hernandez under Bivens v. Six Unknown Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971). In a separate action, plaintiffs asserted claims for loss of consortium under the FTCA and New Mexico state law. The district court consolidated the cases and granted summary judgment to the defendants on all claims. Plaintiffs appeal. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

We recount the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, the non-moving parties, in our summary-judgment review. See Davis v. Clifford, 825 F.3d 1131, 1133 (10th Cir. 2016).

The Investigation On February 19 and 20, 2016, the Southwest Investigative Fugitive Task Force (SWIFT) was attempting to apprehend a fugitive named George Bond in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Hernandez was the lead investigator on the case. Law enforcement officials believed that Bond, who was wanted for murder, was armed and dangerous and was working with several criminal associates.

At approximately 12:30 a.m. on February 20, investigative techniques led SWIFT to believe that Bond was located at a trailer park in Albuquerque. Hernandez and his team initially conducted surveillance from outside the trailer park. Then, later that morning, Hernandez entered the trailer park. He proceeded on foot and in

plain clothes, seeking to maintain a covert presence while gathering intelligence concerning Bond’s potential location.

Hernandez Encounters Camacho; The Shooting At approximately 3:30 a.m. Hernandez was near the southern end of the trailer park when he observed Camacho standing near the middle of the trailer park. Although Hernandez could not see Camacho’s face, he could tell from what he knew of Bond’s description that he was not Bond.

Camacho stood for a moment, looking around to the north and to the south.

Hernandez was concerned he might be engaged in counter-surveillance. Hernandez began to walk away, unsure if Camacho had seen him. When he turned around, he observed Camacho walking directly toward him.

As Camacho approached him, Hernandez attempted to make small talk.

Camacho responded with only curt responses that indicated to Hernandez that he did not want to talk to him. Camacho walked directly up to Hernandez and stopped approximately six to eight feet in front of him.

According to Hernandez, Camacho stared at him for a few seconds without saying anything. Then he took out a cell phone and appeared to be making a call. While still on the phone, Camacho asked Hernandez, “[W]hat are you doing here?” Aplt. App., Vol. VI at 1702 (internal quotation marks omitted). Hernandez replied “with something like ‘[W]hat the hell does it matter to you.’” Id.

The only living witness to the shooting, Hernandez was deposed, and, based on his deposition responses, the United States reported the following facts as being undisputed: 1

Deputy Hernandez observed Camacho-Alvarado attempt to pull his hand out his hoodie pocket and saw that Camacho-Alvarado was holding a gun. Deputy Hernandez yelled, “Police! Don’t move!” as loud as he could and drew his own firearm. Deputy Hernandez then observed Camacho-

Alvarado successfully draw the gun from his right hoodie pocket. At this point, Deputy Hernandez and Camacho-Alvarado were as close as 4 or 5 feet apart.

Camacho-Alvarado ignored Deputy Hernandez’s command and turned and ran north, further into the trailer park, with his weapon in hand.

Deputy Hernandez ran after Camacho-Alvarado and again yelled, “Police!”

...

During the pursuit, Deputy Hernandez could see the firearm in Camacho-Alvarado’s hand. The pursuit lasted approximately 8 seconds.

Camacho-Alvarado turned left by trailer 26 [where he and his mother lived] and Deputy Hernandez briefly lost sight of him. After a second or maybe a couple of seconds, Deputy Hernandez observed movement to his left and saw Camacho-Alvarado to his west, near the front door of trailer 26.

As Deputy Hernandez was facing west, he observed Camacho-

Alvarado moving northward from his left to his right, with his firearm pointed at Deputy Hernandez.

Deputy Hernandez discharged his duty-issued weapon, a Glock 23 Gen 4 40 Caliber handgun, four times. He fired the shots in quick succession, within approximately one second, until he lost sight of Camacho-Alvarado.

1 Plaintiff Hermalinda Alvarado-Escobedo, Camacho’s mother, testified that she heard rapid gunshots from her bedroom in trailer 26, but she did not look outside or see anything at the time she heard the shots. Alvarado-Escobedo’s boyfriend also heard shots. He approached the front door and saw Camacho fall to the ground near the door, but he did not witness the shooting.

Deputy Hernandez was near the southeast corner of trailer 26 when he discharged his weapon.

At that time, Deputy Hernandez was less than 30 feet and possibly as little as 20 feet away from the front door of trailer 26, where he had seen Camacho-Alvarado.

Id., Vol. II at 319-21 (internal quotation marks, alterations, paragraph numbers and

record citations omitted).

Plaintiffs did not dispute that this was an accurate summary of Hernandez’s testimony, but they argued it was incomplete and they attempted to call his account of events into question with other evidence. See Pauly v. White, 874 F.3d 1197, 1218 (10th Cir. 2017) (on summary judgment, court must “look at the circumstantial evidence that, if believed, would tend to discredit the police officer’s story” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Most importantly, they disputed whether Camacho had or pointed a gun at Hernandez. We analyze plaintiffs’ evidence in depth later in this decision.

The Aftermath Camacho was hit once by the gunshots. A medical investigation found that the fatal bullet entered his right lateral chest near the armpit, crossed through his body and came to rest in the tissues of his left mid back.

Immediately after the shooting, Deputy Hernandez, along with two other officers who arrived at the scene, Deputies Malone and Hoyle, approached the front door of trailer 26, where they saw that Camacho had fallen in the doorway. The upper part of his body was inside the threshold of the trailer, and the lower part of his body was on the front steps.

Malone and Hernandez observed a gun near Camacho’s body. Hoyle testified he saw something that he thought was a gun near the body, but he acknowledged it might have been something other than a gun.

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