A baby died after Coast police fired into a car. Here’s what their shooting policies say
After a baby was killed in an alleged shootout with police on the interstate Monday, many in South Mississippi have questions about police protocol and policies related to use of force.
Law enforcement chased a double-homicide suspect, Eric Derrell Smith, after he was spotted on the interstate in Mississippi. Smith’s 4-month-old baby boy was in the blue Nissan Altima with him.
After officers deployed spike strips, Smith kept driving at a speed as low as 10 miles per hour. Then, when Smith’s car got stuck in the interstate median, officers fired a barrage of bullets into the vehicle.
Biloxi police told the Sun Herald that Smith fired at officers first, right before they started shooting into his car.
Smith died at the scene. His baby died Tuesday morning, either of a gunshot wound or from gunshot shrapnel.
Video of the shooting was posted to social media by other nearby drivers on the interstate.
“I back the Blue and I have deep respect for the police, but so many questions...” one woman commented on one of the videos published by the Sun Herald. “So if this man had an adult in the vehicle as a hostage.....the police would have open fired like that?”
Police use of force policies
Police use of force, lethal and non-lethal, is governed by two primary sources: Precedents established by the U.S. Supreme Court and departmental policies.
Departmental policies may place more limits on police than what the court has said is acceptable, but the policies can’t be more flexible than the court’s rulings.
The Supreme Court has said that officers may use deadly force against a suspect who poses a threat of serious physical injury or death to officers or members of the public. It also has said the decision to use force must be evaluated from the perspective of a “reasonable officer” at the scene, without the benefit of complete information available after the incident.
Over the past few months, the Sun Herald requested use of force polices from every law enforcement agency on the Coast.
Three cited exemptions to state public records laws and refused to provide them: Pass Christian and Gulfport police departments and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department. Long Beach provided a heavily redacted version of the policy which did not include the specific standards governing the use of deadly force.
The policies the Sun Herald was able to review are consistent with the Supreme Court precedents on use of force and only rarely impose restrictions beyond those precedents. Essentially, officers are authorized to use deadly force against a person who they reasonably believe could kill or seriously injure the officer or another person.
The policies don’t lay out specific circumstances or criteria for using deadly force. They require officers to protect human life, but they don’t tell officers not to use deadly force against a dangerous suspect when doing so could also harm innocent third parties.
“Human life is sacred,” reads a line from the Bay St. Louis Police Department’s use of force policy. “Protecting human life is the most important mission of our agency.”
Nothing in the policies the Sun Herald reviewed spells out what exactly officers should do in a situation like the one they faced as they tried to stop Smith and protect his baby.
Here’s what the policies say about deadly force:
MS Coast law enforcement use of force rules
Bay St. Louis
“Officers shall never use deadly force, except to protect his life, or the life of another human being.”
Deadly force is authorized by a police officer “only to achieve the following lawful objectives:
- To defend himself, or others against serious threats of serious bodily injury or death.
- To stop dangerous felony flight, where there is serious imminent risk to the public of death or serious bodily injury.”
Biloxi
Biloxi police are authorized to use deadly force under the following conditions:
- To defend themselves or others against serious threats of serious bodily injury or death;
- To stop dangerous felony flight, where there is serious imminent risk to the public of death or serious bodily injury;
- To prevent roaming at large by obviously mad or vicious animals; to relieve animals so badly injured that it cannot reasonably survive from injuries causing prolonged suffering;
- To stop imminent damage to or theft of property, which by its removal or damage, seriously threatens the life and safety of others.
D’Iberville
“D’Iberville Police Officers are authorized to use deadly force when: (i) There is immediate and serious danger of serious bodily injury or death to an officer or bystander or; (ii) the suspect has demonstrated dangerousness by the previous use or threatened use of deadly force.”
Gautier
Officers are allowed to use deadly force when “The suspect is perceived by the officer to be assaultive – serious bodily harm or death. The appropriate level of response is deadly force. Deadly force includes firearms, knives, or any other means immediately available that a reasonable officer, in the same circumstance, would consider as potentially causing death or serious bodily injury....
Deadly force is not to be used against a felon simply because of the crime he/she committed; rather, it is used because of the threat he/she poses to the officer’s or public’s safety if allowed to remain at large.”
Gulfport
Gulfport cited exemptions to Mississippi records laws and refused to share their use of force policy.
Hancock County Sheriff’s Department
Deputies are justified in using deadly force in the following circumstances:
“To protect themselves from what they reasonably believe would be an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.
To stop a fleeing suspect when the deputy reasonably believes there is an imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death to any other person if the suspect is not immediately captured.”
Harrison County Sheriff’s Department
The department rejected the Sun Herald’s request for its use of force policy.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department
An officer may reasonably use lethal force when there is:
- A “reasonable belief the subject presents an immediate threat to cause serious physical injury to the officer, another officer, or another member of the public; or
- Probable cause for the officer to believe the subject has just committed a crime involving inflicted/threatened infliction of serious physical injury to another and deadly force is necessary to prevent the escape of the subject in order to protect the public or another officer(s).
Officers need not exhaust lesser options of force in order to use deadly force, nor are they required to use the least intrusive means of force.”
Long Beach
Long Beach heavily redacted their use of force policy before sending it to the Sun Herald. Section IV: Procedures - Section IIX and the specific language around the use of deadly force and any particular restrictions or exemptions were thus unavailable for review. This portion was not redacted:
“It is the policy of the Long Beach Police Department that police officers will use only that force that is reasonably necessary to effectively bring an incident under control, while protecting the lives of the officer or another and enforce the law under guidelines established in this policy manual.”
Moss Point
Deadly force is authorized only in certain instances to achieve the following “lawful objectives:
- To defend themselves, or others against serious threats or serious bodily injury or death.
- To stop dangerous the felonious flight of an individual where there is “serious imminent risk to the public of death or serious bodily injury.
- To prevent roaming at obviously “mad or vicious animals; to relieve animals so badly injured that it cannot reasonably survive from injuries causing prolonged suffering.’”
Ocean Springs
“The use of firearms or any other device, tool, or tactic used as a lethal force option may be used when an officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of death or serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others.”
Pascagoula
Pascagoula officers are authorized to use deadly force for the following purposes:
- “To defend himself, or others against serious threats of serious bodily injury or death.
- To stop dangerous felony flight, where there is serious imminent risk to the public of death or serious bodily injury...
Deadly force is not to be used against a felon simply because of the crime he/she committed; rather, it is used because of the threat he/she poses to the officer’s or public’s safety if allowed to remain at large.”
Pass Christian
The department rejected the Sun Herald’s request for their use of force policy.
Waveland
Deadly force may be used by officers when they reasonably believe that the action is in defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in defense of any person in immediate danger of death or serious physical harm.
This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 1:17 PM.
