On May 17, 2014, plaintiffs’ decedent Glenn Swindell, 39, a Safeway employee, was found dead in the garage attic of his home, in Larkfield-Wikiup, after deputies attempted to arrest him at the end of a nearly 12-hour stand-off, which began when his wife called 911 to report a domestic dispute on May 16, 2014. An autopsy revealed that Swindell died from a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound. The decedent’s estate; his wife, Sarah Swindell; his mother, Deborah Belka; and his four children sued several individual deputies and supervisors of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, and the officers’ employer, the county of Sonoma. Sarah Swindell claimed that after an argument, her husband took the children and locked her out of the house. She claimed she called 911 for help, but told the dispatcher that no violence had occurred and that she only wanted to get the children out of the house. When deputies arrived, they were successful in convincing the decedent to allow the children to leave, but he refused to leave the house because he allegedly feared law enforcement. Plaintiffs’ counsel contended that the sheriff’s personnel provided inaccurate information to a judge to obtain an arrest warrant and negligently escalated the situation by calling in a SWAT team and surrounding the house, even though Sarah Swindell urged them to de-escalate the situation. Counsel also contended that after pepper spray and tear gas were introduced, the decedent became trapped in his attic, where he was quickly disabled and in excruciating pain, so he shot himself. Plaintiffs’ counsel principally asserted that the deliberate deployment of tear gas into the attic violated the Fourth Amendment, in that it created an uncontrollable impulse to commit suicide due to the pain caused by its use in an enclosed space. Defense counsel asserted that the law enforcement response was lawful and pursuant to a warrant. Counsel also asserted that it was the decedent’s decision to take his own life and that the decedent shot himself before pepper spray and tear gas were introduced into the house. Defense counsel contended that Sarah Swindell told deputies that she was concerned for the safety of her children because her husband had been drinking and she knew he had guns in the house. Counsel contended that when the decedent refused to leave his house and locked the officers out after being told he would be arrested, the SWAT unit was activated and a perimeter was established around the house. Counsel also contended that a valid warrant for the decedent’s arrest was obtained based on his conduct, which included hitting his wife with car keys that he had thrown at her. Defense counsel contended that the deputies successfully contacted the decedent on his cell phone and negotiated with him for more than an hour, trying to get him to voluntarily exit the house, but eventually contact was lost. Counsel asserted that despite numerous attempts to re-establish contact, the decedent did not respond and that over the next several hours, the sheriff’s personnel, who could not determine the decedent’s whereabouts, attempted to locate him using a robot and a police dog. Counsel also asserted that flash-bang devices were deployed outside of the residence to make sure the decedent had not fallen asleep and that pepper spray and tear gas were introduced into the house to get the decedent to leave. However, defense counsel contended that contact with the decedent was never re-established and that his body was discovered the next morning., Glenn Swindell sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and died at the scene. He was survived by his wife, Sarah Swindell; his mother, Deborah Belka; his son, Tyler Swindell, then 24; and three unidentified children, then ages 5, 9 and 20. The decedent’s family sought recovery of wrongful death damages for the loss of Glenn Swindell. (Belka was ultimately removed as a plaintiff.) Defense counsel noted that expert testimony did not clearly establish time of death, or whether the decedent inhaled pepper spray and/or tear gas before he shot himself.