He said Fruitland police shot him during a mental break. He has died from his injuries
An Idaho man who accused law enforcement of shooting him during a bipolar episode, leaving him paralyzed, has died.
Now, a court will consider whether David Grant’s death is the end of his federal lawsuit against Fruitland and Payette County law enforcement.
The shooting was one of many in Idaho that begin as a confrontation between police and someone who has a mental illness.
Grant’s estate has filed a request to replace him as the plaintiff, because he is no longer alive. Grant died Aug. 24, almost a year since he filed the lawsuit in September 2018.
Grant’s estate, represented by his mother, recently filed a motion to continue Grant’s case despite his death. Court records say his parents, brother, sister and daughter are his heirs.
The motion says Grant was deprived of his civil rights, and his estate should be allowed to keep his lawsuit alive.
The motion says the “core question confronting the court is whether the defendants should be insulated from an award of damages based on their conduct simply because ... they were lucky enough for the injuries it is alleged that they caused and the obstacles to a recovery which it is alleged they conspired to create resulted in his death before the action was resolved.”
Grant said he was manic
He was driving south into the Treasure Valley around midnight on Oct. 24, 2016, a Monday. He was headed to a friend’s house in Nampa, having traveled for hours from his home near Coeur d’Alene.
He was exhausted. Although he was on medication for bipolar disorder, the fatigue triggered a manic episode.
Police officers in rural Payette County tried to stop him after he failed to yield to an emergency vehicle, they said. Grant maintained that he was paranoid and confused by the lights, sirens and an officer yelling at him, so he kept driving. He also tried to drive the wrong way on a highway ramp.
The Fruitland police officer fired four rounds into his car.
Grant’s injuries left him an “incomplete quadriplegic” — permanently unable to use one arm and two legs, with his other arm limited to simple tasks such as lifting a plastic cup of water to his mouth. He was living in a Nampa nursing home as of last year.
After the incident, Grant pleaded guilty to a charge of fleeing officers, which allowed him to avoid another charge of aggravated assault. He was sentenced to probation for three years.
Grant’s injuries led to his death, according to his death certificate. The certificate listed sepsis, a urinary tract infection, paraplegia and gunshot to neck as the cause of death. He was 49 when he died.
Police respond to claims
The Payette police department, Fruitland police department and their codefendants responded to Grant’s lawsuit in October and December of last year.
They denied the allegations that officers acted wrongly. They don’t deny that Grant was injured, but they contend that Grant’s injuries were not their fault.
They said video of the shooting showed Grant “failing to stop at the direction of uniformed police officers, displaying audible and visual signals as required by Idaho (law).“
By driving the wrong way on a highway ramp, “he became a potential hazard for other motorists,” they said. “Plaintiff appeared to ignore orders, disregard commands and continue to operate his motor vehicle in a manner which put the safety of the officers, as well as the public, in danger.”
Payette’s response to the lawsuit said Grant “never stopped his motor vehicle, despite repeated and emphatic commands to do so.”
The night Grant was shot
Grant argued that he was having a bipolar manic episode the night he was shot. His attorney, Jason Monteleone, said Grant had no illegal drugs or alcohol in his system at the time, just his bipolar medication.
“My client, with the bipolar disorder, is confused, and he’s driving along, and he’s following his GPS unit, and he’s not wanting to pull over for the police,” Monteleone told the Statesman when the lawsuit was initially filed. “He turns onto the exit ramp at (Exit 3) off of I-84. ... And he realizes that he’s going the wrong way — that he should’ve continued another 50 yards farther — but he realizes his error, and he begins turning around and he does (a three-point turn).”
Monteleone said Grant was experiencing “intense paranoia.” It isn’t uncommon for bipolar disorder to cause paranoia or delusions.
A Fruitland police officer’s bodycam recorded the incident. The footage shows the officer giving Grant orders, which Grant did not follow. After turning around his car, Grant started to slowly drive along a guard rail. The officer fired into Grant’s window four times.
In the video, the officer told someone that he thought Grant might be trying to run over another officer.
Idaho State Police investigated the shooting and turned its findings over to the Washington County prosecutor, who decided not to file charges.
Grant’s lawsuit said Grant never brandished a gun and shouldn’t have been shot.
It also accused the defendants of trying to “greatly distort and hyperbolize the threat posed by Grant’s actions ... in a concerted attempt to advance the common objective of concealing the wrongfulness of the use of lethal force upon Grant.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
