An Instagram model and ex-LAPD cop who shot dead a knife-wielding maniac at the scene of a traffic collision is now on the hook for an excessive force lawsuit from the man’s daughter, after a ruling from the US Supreme Court.
Toni McBride, nicknamed “Top Shot” for her sharpshooting skills, can face a lawsuit from the family of Daniel Hernandez, who approached her with a boxcutter after a car wreck in downtown LA on April 22, 2020 — Supreme Court justices ruled Monday.
Hernandez’ 18-year-old daughter, Melanie Hernandez, filed her wrongful-death suit against gun model McBride on July 10, 2020, about a month after the LAPD released shocking footage of the fatal shooting from McBride’s bodycam.
The ex-cop, who has posed for magazine covers and has more than 124,000 Instagram followers, has spent time rubbing elbows with Hollywood celebs like James Cameron, Keanu Reeves, Michael B. Jordan and Chris Hemsworth at a Simi Valley gun range where stars train with firearms.
But the Supreme Court says she can still be sued after her confrontation with a shirtless, possibly high-on-meth Hernandez at the scene of a three-way car crash ended with six shots fired and the 38-year-old man’s death.
McBride left the LAPD after the shooting but remains active as a “2A advocate” on social media.
The Court has refused to block an excessive force lawsuit against McBride over the objections of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr, rejecting an appeal from the Los Angeles city attorney asking to toss the suit from the family of Hernandez.
The city attorney had asked the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s ruling that allowed a jury to decide if McBride too far when she fired two final shots at Hernandez after he had fallen to the ground.
No dice, said SCOTUS, paving the way for a lawsuit against the gun-loving influencer.
In LAPD bodycam video of McBride’s clash with Hernandez, the ex-cop is seen responding to a 911 call of a man trying to stab himself at the scene of the crash.
The harrowing video shows McBride drawing her gun and telling two motorists to leave their cars and step away from their vehicles.
Hernandez then appears in the frame, walking toward McBride in the middle of the street, and holding what appears to be a boxcutter in his right hand.
“Don’t move,” says McBride, gesturing with her left hand for him to halt.
McBride then tells Hernandez to “drop the knife” four times, but he keeps moving in the cop’s direction, still grasping the weapon.
McBride then opens fire, shooting Hernandez, who was about 30 feet away, twice. He falls to the pavement on his side, but immediately kneels to get back up, and McBride fires four more rounds.
The LAPD police commission found shooting was “in policy” under the department’s rules.
But the family of the berserk flooring-installer says it was excessive.
“I feel like [McBride] was set to kill. There was no attempt to deescalate whatsoever,” Marina Vergara, Hernandez’s older sister, told Los Angeles Magazine at the time.
The lawsuit claims “Hernandez posed no threat or danger to anyone and none to McBride in particular.”
Family members argue McBride was too quick to shoot at Hernandez, who was at least 30 feet away from her and not near bystanders.
An autopsy showed Hernandez had methamphetamines in his system, the Los Angeles Times reported.
McBride attorney Larry Hanna has argued that the former cop was simply following protocol.
“She put her body in front of the citizens who were there and kept telling Hernandez to stop,” Hanna told NBC. “She put out her hand, she did everything she could.”
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