finding that custody exception did not apply where emergency responders left a man lying unconscious in a room that had been secured as a crime scene, and from which they already had removed a person who apparently had died of a drug overdose
How later courts described this case
- finding that custody exception did not apply where emergency responders left a man lying unconscious in a room that had been secured as a crime scene, and from which they already had removed a person who apparently had died of a drug overdose
- finding first element of state-created danger exception not satisfied where officers left an individual unconscious in an apartment and he was later discovered to have died of a drug overdose
- noting that “[a]n example would be an unconscious drunk whom the police handcuff and take to jail”
- “In the absence of any allegation that a private rescue was attempted, the officers did not commit a constitutional violation by securing the apartment and leaving [the deceased] lying on the couch.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I fully concur in the reasoning and result reached by the lead opinion. My purpose in writing separately is simply to point out my total befuddlement as to why the EMTs would not have attended to *288 Carver under the circumstances as alleged in the complaint. But the complaint fails to bring this case within either of the exceptions set forth in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, 489 U.S. 189 , 109 S.Ct. 998 , 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989). In contrast to the facts of Beck v. Haik, 377 F.3d 624 , 636 (6th Cir.2004), the present complaint makes no allegation that the defendants “cut off private sources of rescue” that otherwise would have intervened to save Carver. If there had been allegations of a private rescue attempt aborted by the defendants’ actions, I would have concluded that qualified immunity was not appropriate on a motion to dismiss.