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 were in danger at the precise moment that they used force and on whether [the officer's] own reckless or deliberate conduct during the seizure unreasonably created the need to use such force." Maj. Op. at 8 (quoting Sevier v. City of Lawrence, 60 F.3d 695, 699 (10th Cir. 1995) (footnote omitted)). And as the majority also recognizes, "[t]he calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments—in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving—about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation." Maj. Op. at 8–9 (quoting Graham, 490 U.S. at 396–97).

As I read the majority opinion, it refuses qualified immunity to any law-enforcement officer who shoots a knife-wielding suspect unless that person "charges" the officer and aggressively motions toward the officer with the knife. See Maj. Op. at 10–12. The majority believes this result is compelled by this single sentence taken from Walker v. City of Orem, 451 F.3d 1139, 1160 (10th Cir. 2006):

"It was specifically established [in Zuchel v. City & Cty. of Denver, 997 F.2d 730, 735–36 (10th Cir. 1993) (Zuchel II)] that where an officer had reason to believe that a suspect was only holding a knife, not a gun, and the suspect was not charging the officer and had made no slicing or stabbing motions toward him, that it was unreasonable for the officer to use deadly force against the suspect."

I disagree with the majority that Walker so dramatically shrunk—or intended to shrink—our analytical framework applied in Zuchel II until now. Rather than narrowing a robust totality-of-circumstances inquiry to two meager factors, I believe Walker simply recognized the importance of those factors as part of evaluating qualified immunity. See 2