OVERTURNED

Supreme Court Sides With Arizona Cops in Excessive-Force Case

High court ruled in favor of police who shot woman four times for allegedly waving a knife.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of an Arizona police officer in an excessive-force case. With its decision, the high court overturned a 2016 ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with a woman, Amy Hughes, who was wounded by University of Arizona Cpl. Andrew Gisela, when he shot her four times for allegedly waving a knife at him. Gisella and two other officers were responding to a call by a roommate who said Hughes threatened to stab a dog 20 times. The officer said he shot the woman after she refused to drop her weapon, but two other officers at the scene said they didn’t witness Hughes draw a knife. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the court’s decision: “It tells officers that they can shoot first and think later, and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished.”