FLINT TWP., MI - A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a lawsuit against a police officer who fatally shot a fleeing suspect can move forward.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's decision Aug. 22 finding Flint Township police officer Matthew Needham is not entitled to qualified immunity for the July 16, 2014, fatal shooting of Dominique Lewis.

Lewis' family filed the lawsuit April 20, 2015, in Detroit U.S. District Court after Lewis was shot and killed during a traffic stop on Flushing Road near Eldorado Street in Flint Township. The stop and shooting was recorded on dash-cam video.

Judges Helene N. White and Sheryl H. Lipman upheld Detroit U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn's decision not to grant summary judgement to Needham based on claims of immunity.

"The dash-cam video does not conclusively show that a reasonable officer would have believed Lewis posed an imminent threat of serious physical harm to Needham or others in the vicinity," the appeals judges ruled. "Rather, viewed in the light most favorable to the Estate, it shows that Lewis--who was not suspected of any violent crime--was merely trying to flee a traffic stop in a vehicle, which alone is not sufficient to justify the use of deadly force."

Attorneys for Needham and the township asked Cohen to grant Needham immunity and dismiss the lawsuit.

Appeals Judge Alice M. Batchelder authored a dissent opinion agreeing with the request.

"In refusing to grant such immunity here, the majority adds confusion not only to law of this circuit, but also to the difficult task faced by law enforcement in applying what we say is clearly established law," Batchelder wrote. "How exactly we expect them to conform their actions to the rule purportedly applied in this case is beyond me. I suppose they will conclude that they must stand idly by, obstructing would-be escapees with nothing more than entreaties to stop. That is not the law, nor should it be."

Dash-cam video and police reports obtained by MLive-The Flint Journal through the Freedom of Information Act show a Flint Township officer initiated a traffic stop of a white Chevrolet Impala after the officer claimed the vehicle was clocked traveling 13 mph over the speed limit.

Needham arrived as a backup officer on the scene to assist the Flint Township officer who made the traffic stop.

Lewis was a passenger in the back seat of the stopped car.

The officer who initiated the stop claimed she wanted to search the vehicle after she said she thought she smelled marijuana inside the vehicle, according to police reports.

The officer also said the passengers were "moving around in the vehicle like they may have been trying to hide something," according to police reports.

The 12 minute, 8 second dash-cam video released by police shows the officer who pulled over the car removing the driver from the vehicle nearly 10 minutes into the stop and frisking her.

The full video of the stop can be viewed below:



The officer then allows the driver to remove her young daughter from the back seat of the car.

The video then shows the officer remove a male adult from the front passenger side of the vehicle.

As the officer begins to pat-down the passenger, the video shows the Impala beginning to shake. The lawsuit claims Lewis began climbing into the vehicle's driver's seat.

The officer told Michigan State Police investigators that Lewis started the car and attempted to flee the scene, according to police reports.

Needham, who was outside the view of the dash-cam as the other officer was removing the vehicle's occupants, can be seen in the video running in front of the car with his hand near his pistol.

Needham yells, "Stop, police," but the car, which police said was driven by Lewis at that point, can be seen in the video beginning to move forward toward Needham. Needham sidesteps the car and fires two shots into the vehicle.

The car made a U-turn in the road before jumping the curb and coming to rest in some trees, according to a police report.

Lewis died as a result of the gunshot wounds.

Attorneys for Needham argued the dash-cam video showed Needham was entitled to qualified immunity, which shields government officials from civil liability if their conduct does not violate clearly established constitutional rights that a reasonable person should know.

However, the judges in the majority opinion found that a reasonable jury could find that Needham used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, particularly since the video shows Needham lower his weapon as he jumped from the vehicle's path.

"Moreover, the video strongly suggests--and Needham appears to concede--that Needham fired into the driver's side window," the majority opinion states. "This fact and Needham's position at the side of the car suggest he was clear of the vehicle and not in danger when he fired his weapon. Needham contends he fired through the driver's side window only because at the time, he was 'trying to dodge the vehicle.'"

However, Batchelder, in her dissent, disagreed with the majority's opinion of events.

"The majority stresses the fact that Needham lowered his gun as having some significance on this point," Batchelder wrote. "But they ignore the context: the video, again with indisputable clarity, reveals that Needham lowered his weapon and began moving out of the car's path as soon as Lewis began driving away and that he raised it again only after Lewis began to swerve toward him."

Attorney G. Gus Morris, who represents Needham and the township, said Batchelder's dissenting opinion correctly decided that qualified immunity applied in the case. He added that it is unfair for the case to proceed against Needham when he was forced to make a split-second decision.

Morris said he plans to file an en banc petition to have the ruling reviewed by all the appeals court judges for a possible reversal. A decision on whether the court will hear the petition is usually issued within 60 days, Morris said.

The lawsuit claims Needham failed to use tactics that would have avoided deadly force, such as avoiding the car driven by Lewis and radioing a description and license plate of the fleeing vehicle to other officers.

Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton announced in October 2014 that he would not charge Needham in the shooting because he believed the officer's actions were justified.

Leyton said the officer fired the shots in self-defense and in an attempt to prevent Lewis from escaping the scene.

Police discovered a loaded, stolen pistol in Lewis' possession after the incident, according to Leyton.

Lewis was sentenced to prison in 2008 for assault with intent to do great bodily harm after he shot a man on the city's north side. He was on parole at the time of his death.

The female driver of the vehicle told police that Lewis told her to run from the police as the vehicle was being pulled over, according to a police report. She said Lewis never said why he wanted her to flee.

The lawsuit is seeking in excess of $75,000 in damages.

Attorneys for Lewis' estate could not be immediately reached for comment on the ruling.