Page:Tenorio v Pitzer 10th Circuit.pdf/36

 evidence upon which a jury could conclude that Defendants acted recklessly by confronting [the son] in the manner that they did after knowing that he was armed and distraught over problems he was having with his girlfriend, and without gathering more information on the situation." Id. at 701 n.10.

Sevier cannot support Tenorio's facts. Tenorio had frightened his family by his active resistance to putting the knife down and by his waving it around and holding it to his throat. Unlike the disputed lunging in Sevier, Tenorio's case involves a district court's finding that he entered the living room and walked directly toward the officers. While the police in Sevier had the luxury of time in which to involve others adept in dealing with similar situations, the officers called to Tenorio’s house faced a more immediate challenge. As mentioned, they knew that Tenorio had scared Ms. Valdez to a degree that she called 911 and then frantically waved them over when they arrived. They also knew that the dispatcher had told them that Tenorio was drunk; that he had held a knife to his throat that evening; that he had vandalized house windows that evening; that he had a violent history; that Tenorio’s wife and brother-in-law were with him in the house; and that Tenorio was in the kitchen waving the knife around. These circumstances presented much more of an emergency than did those in Sevier. I cannot see how the officers acted recklessly here in trying to get the two family members away from the knife-wielding Tenorio. Once that was accomplished, had he let that happen, the officers might well then 23