San Francisco police immune from lawsuit over woman's shooting

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/18/san-francisco-police-immune-lawsuit-woman

Version 0 of 1.

The supreme court said on Monday police are immune from a lawsuit arising from the arrest and shooting of a mentally ill woman in San Francisco.

The justices ruled that police did not violate the rights of Teresa Sheehan when they forced their way into her room at a group home and shot her five times after she came at them with a knife.

The officers had been called to take Sheehan for an emergency psychiatric evaluation after she threatened a case worker, but the situation quickly escalated.

Related: Police shooting of mentally ill woman reaches US supreme court. Why did it happen at all?

Sheehan, then 56, was shot in the hip and the head. She survived, but had to undergo two hip replacement operations.

The high court, which heard oral arguments in the case in March, on Monday left undecided the question of whether police should take special precautions when arresting armed and violent people suffering from mental illness.

Sheehan claimed police must make reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act for suspects with mental illnesses.

The court said it would not take up that question because it had not been fully considered by lower courts.