Judge says Alabama cop can't be sued for shooting and killing unarmed cancer patient recovering from surgery

An Alabama police officer who shot and killed his neighbor is being saved from litigation after claiming that the 34-year-old cancer patient was behaving erratically after having brain surgery, said AL.com.

“The Court recognizes that Spivey’s erratic, aggressive, non-compliant behavior may have been due to his medical condition,” U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks wrote in the opinion. “However, notwithstanding the source of Spivey’s behavior, a reasonable officer has a responsibility to protect the community when confronted by a dangerous suspect.”

The officer, Mason Adcock, shot and killed Channing Lamar Spivey on May 27, 2020. Spivey was acting peculiar and had an incident where he accidentally crashed his GMC Yukon into a tree while driving donuts on a friend's property. He wouldn't accept a ride home from the police, instead walking four miles barefoot back to his house.

It led the family to have questions about what was going on. The family had called police to ask for help, not because they felt a threat or in danger.

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“I don’t understand it,” aunt Chanda Callaway said in an AL.com interview in 2020. “He was unarmed. He had brain cancer and he had been taking treatments.”

Adock's attorney claimed that the officer was defending his life from the unarmed cancer patient.

“Mason Adcock and his family are relieved this is behind them,” the lawyer said. “The family regrets the loss of life. It was a tragedy. But the court made it clear the young man brought this tragedy on himself.”

Read the full report from AL.com.