Is a police officer entitled to use deadly force on a felon driving a vehicle in the direction of the officer?

An officer is entitled to use deadly force on a felon driving a vehicle in the officer's direction. (Brown v. Ransweiler (2009) 171 Cal.App.4th 516, 536-537 [officer was entitled, as a matter of law, to discharge his weapon at a murder suspect who drove toward him in an attempt to hit the officer and flee].) "The law has never been applied to suggest that there is only one reasonable action that an officer may take under a given set of circumstances. There will virtually always be a range of conduct that is reasonable. As long as an officer's conduct falls within the range of conduct that is reasonable under the circumstances, there is no requirement that he or she choose the 'most reasonable' action or the conduct that is the least likely to cause harm and at the same time the most likely to result in the successful apprehension of a violent suspect, in order to avoid liability for negligence. It would be unreasonable to require police officers in the field to engage in the sort of complex calculus that would be necessary to determine the 'best' or most effective and least dangerous method of handling an immediate and dangerous situation, particularly when officers are forced to make split-second decisions under tense and often perilous conditions." (Id. at pp. 537-538.)

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