INDIANAPOLIS - Attorneys in the McKinney v. Duplain civil trial approach closing arguments, at which point the jury will go into deliberation to review the evidence.
Judge Richard Young said Friday examination of witnesses and evidence should conclude late Monday. The jury will then determine whether then-rookie Ball State University police officer Robert Duplain used exessive force when he shot and killed student Michael McKinney.
The McKinneys have asked to be awarded $275 million.
In November 2003, Duplain responded to a call at Muncie resident Jane Poole's house after she called police reporting McKinney was trying to break into her house. McKinney, who had a blood-alcohol content of .343 percent, charged at Duplain, who then shot the student four times.
Duplain's defense attorneys called upon Darrell Ross, chairman for the Department of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration at Western Illinois University, to testify Friday.
Ross said he is an expert on survival stress during deadly-force situations.
Officers often experience tunnel vision, which Duplain said in his Wednesday testimony he experienced during the McKinney shooting, Ross said. Tunnel vision is a loss of up to 60 percent of someone's peripheral vision when he is intensely focusing on an object.
Tunnel vision could have prevented Duplain from noticing what was happening to McKinney's body as he was shooting, Ross said, which could explain Duplain's inconsistencies in his explanation about why two bullets were found in McKinney's back.
Ross also testified there was a small amount of reaction time for Duplain to determine whether McKinney was threatening deadly force when he charged, and the officer's actions were understandable in that situation.
It would have taken 1.5 seconds for McKinney to close the 15-foot gap between he and Duplain, Ross said. It takes .3 to .6 seconds for an officer to assess a situation and .5 seconds to holster a gun, Ross said
"There's going to be a lag time for the officer to process what he is actually seeing," he said. "A lot of it depends how quick an officer is and how quickly the suspect is advancing. It would have taken at least one second just to complete the action [of assessing the situation and holstering the weapon]."
Plaintiffs Attorney Geoffrey Fieger questioned Ross' credibility as a witness indicating Ross would be unfamiliar with that type of situation.
"The extent of your expertise is something you've read in a book," Fieger said. "You've given testimony to the court without ever having made a burglary arrest."
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