United States v. Hillsman

James Hillsman and Clinton Bush (defendants) were among 200 to 300 mourners attending a funeral in Gary, Indiana. Several undercover federal agents were conducting surveillance outside the funeral home to observe and identify suspected drug dealers. All the agents wore ordinary street clothes and drove unmarked cars. Agent David Munson stationed himself with a video camera alongside newspaper photographers and began filming mourners as they left. A group of Black mourners demanded that Munson, who was White, stop filming and leave the area. Munson kept filming, and mourner William Hanyard began shoving and hitting Munson. Acting agent in charge Kenneth Rhodes, who was Black, drew his gun intending to shoot Hanyard, but the gun discharged prematurely. The bullet grazed Hanyard and hit and killed an innocent bystander. Rhodes immediately announced he was a federal agent and told Munson, “Let’s get out of here.” Although Munson heard that statement, he did not hear Rhodes announce he was an agent. As Rhodes went to his car, a woman in the crowd pointed him out as the shooter. A group of mourners began running after Rhodes, and both Hillsman and Bush fired shots at Rhodes’s car as he drove away. One bullet hit the car, but Rhodes escaped injury. Hillsman and Bush were charged with assaulting a federal officer. Both testified that they saw the skirmish involving Hanyard but, like agent Munson, did not hear Rhodes announce he was a federal agent. Both testified that they pursued Rhodes because they thought he was a felon fleeing the scene of a crime and wanted to stop him until police arrived. The trial judge gave the jury a lengthy instruction about the right to make a private citizen’s arrest, explaining that a citizen could use deadly force to stop a violent felon, but that a felony had to have actually occurred. The defense requested an instruction that did not specify that Rhodes had to have actually committed a felony, but the judge rejected that instruction. The jury convicted, and Hillsman and Bush appealed.