Lombardo v. St. Louis

In 2015, Nicholas Gilbert, a pretrial detainee in St. Louis, died after officers placed him prone and shackled him while trying to subdue him in a holding cell. His parents, Jody Lombardo and Brian Gilbert, sued the officers and the City for excessive force under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court granted summary judgment to the officers based on qualified immunity, and the Eighth Circuit affirmed, finding the force not excessive. On June 28, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam summary reversal, holding that viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, a reasonable jury could find the officers used excessive force by pressing down on Gilbert’s back for several minutes after he was handcuffed and legs shackled.

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Eighth Circuit’s judgment and remanded the case, ruling the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage because the facts, taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, could support a finding of excessive force.

Whether the officers were entitled to qualified immunity for their use of prone restraint on a handcuffed and shackled detainee who died, and whether the force used violated the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness standard.

The decision reinforced judicial scrutiny of qualified immunity in police death cases and signaled that clear-cut excessive force claims should be decided by juries. It added momentum to national debates on police reform and accountability, particularly concerning the use of prone restraint and deaths in custody.