Officer Hourigan, armed with a .40 caliber service pistol, fired one round at an unarmed man striking them.
Hourigan stated, “He came out in an aggressive manner towards my partner officers, hunched over with his hands up… believing he had a knife and he was going to harm my partner officers, I fired one shot.”
The UOFRB and Chief agreed that a similarly trained officer would not have reasonably perceived unarmed man’s actions—exiting the bathroom with his hands up and no visible knife—as an imminent threat of death or serious injury. As a result, the Chief deemed Hourigan’s use of lethal force objectively unreasonable and ruled it Out of Policy, issuing an Administrative Disapproval.
Officer Ryan Hourigan’s use of lethal force deemed unreasonable and out of policy
