Federal appeals court affirms fatal police shooting

NEW YORK – The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed a District Court decision that Warwick Town Police acted properly when an officer shot and killed Anthony Costello after a car chase on April 30, 2004.

Costello’s widow, Christine, sued the Town of Warwick, Police Chief Thomas McGovern and the officer who shot Costello, Ronald Donnatin.

Costello had led police on a high-speed chase through the streets of the area and would not heed officers’ attempts for him to stop. When forced to stop, he smashed his vehicle into police cars, knocking a number of officers to the ground, injuring them.

Officer Donnatin shot Costello when he thought he was about to back up and run over another officer.

The Costello family’s attorney, Michael Sussman, sued claiming Costello’s Fourth Amendment right to freedom from the use of excessive force was violated.

US District Court dismissed the suit and Sussman appealed to the Court of Appeals. In that court’s decision, the judges wrote that it was “objectively reasonable for Donnatin to believe that at least one police officer was underneath Costello’s car, that other officers may have been hurt, and that Costello would continue to use his car to inflict serious bodily harm on the other arresting officers.”

The judges wrote that they evaluate the “reasonableness of Donnatin’s decision based on his own knowledge of the circumstances immediately prior to his split-second decision to shoot and conclude that under the circumstances presented, Donnatin’s conduct was reasonable.”

Earlier, an Orange County grand jury cleared Donnatin of any wrongdoing in connection with Costello’s death.