Deadly force must be

• A. proportionate
• B. necessary
• C. objectively reasonable
• D. unreasonable

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is that the use of deadly force by an officer is judged by an objective standard. Deadly force is considered justified only if a reasonable officer, in the same situation and with the same training, would find the force to be appropriate given what was known at the moment. This objective reasonableness test looks at the totality of the circumstances and does not rely on perfect hindsight.

So, the best answer says deadly force must be objectively reasonable. That means the decision isn’t about whether it would be justified with perfect information afterward, but whether, under the real-time facts available to a reasonable officer on the scene, the force used was a reasonable response to a real and imminent threat. Proportionality and necessity are important concepts that feed into that overall reasonableness, but they don’t replace the standard of being objectively reasonable. The idea of “unreasonable” is simply what the standard rejects.