On the morning of January 29, 2007, Linden State Police ("LSP") officers Michael Moss and Edward Brown were on patrol when a call alerted them to an ongoing bank robbery. Moss and Brown drove to Chemical Bank on 91st Street and Broadway in Springfield, Linden. As they responded, one of the robbers, Sidney Fisher, fired at them with a large semi-automatic handgun before fleeing north along Broadway with the officers in pursuit. Meanwhile, Transit Officers Ronald Bauman and Anthony Savarese were on patrol in the vicinity when they received a radio transmission regarding the robbery, and they immediately saw the gunman running toward them. They exchanged shots, and the robber continued his flight to and along West End Avenue and then toward Riverside Drive. During this chase, numerous shots were fired by the robber as well as by police. No shots hit the robber, despite some being fired from relatively short distances. Bauman was hit in his bulletproof vest but was uninjured. As the robber passed 202 Riverside Drive, he grabbed Bonnie Vargas, who had just exited her apartment building. By now, police officers Patrick White, Jose Brizuela, Silvano Brajuha, Eugene Kastner and Michael Sosa were also responding from the nearby 24th precinct. By this time, the robber was backed against 202 Riverside Drive, which was enclosed by a fence. He was surrounded on his other three sides by police officers. The robber held Ms. Vargas in a chokehold as he waved his handgun toward the officers. Clearly, he had nowhere to go, the flight and pursuit were over, and the robber and the police were in a standoff. Capture of the gunman was prevented only by the fact of the hostage. Bauman shouted "just look around, there's no place to go, it's over, just put down your gun." Although the robber subsequently fired in the general direction of police, they were all behind cars and other obstructions and they did not return fire at this time. No civilians, other than the hostage, were in the open or otherwise exposed to gunfire from the robber at this time. As the standoff continued, Officer White maneuvered his way from across the street to the south side ofRiverside Drive, about 10 or 15 feet from where the robber was located. Around this time, the robber started to slowly maneuver toward Riverside Drive. The robber held the hostage in front of him, but was not pointing a gun at her head or chest. While under cover of a parked car, White positioned himself to fire at the gunman. The events that followed are less than clear in particular details, owing to different points of observation by different officers and varying degrees of recall regarding split-second occurrences, but a general narrative can be discerned. From the outset, no ranking officer gave orders. As officer White stood and positioned himself, the robber shot in his direction. Although White was uninjured, Officer Kastner, misapprehending what White was doing, thought that White had been hit and consequently had fallen between parked cars. White stated that he had intentionally ducked. Kastner, thinking he was returning fire when an officer was down, shot at the robber. These shots initiated a volley of gunfire by the robber and other officers who, hearing the shots, believed that a gun battle had commenced. Kastner believed that the next shot was fired by Sgt. Venezia, a ranking officer, who, rather than taking command, simply joined in the shooting. Although Kastner stated that he thought that the hostage had been able to break away, he also stated that the robber was still using the hostage as a shield when he shot at the robber. Officer Brizuela thought that the hostage either tripped or fell when the firing began, and he fired four shots as he ran toward the robber. He also stated that no one took command and no orders had been given. Officer Brajuha thought that the hostage managed to move a couple of steps away when the firing began. Brajuha admits that it would violate standard police procedure for any officer to fire a weapon while a suspect held a hostage. Bauman, too, acknowledged that standard police procedures prohibit an officer from firing if doing so would place an innocent person in jeopardy. He initially withheld his fire because of the hostage and noted that all officers were adequately protected and that the robber never pointedhis gun at the hostage or seemed to threaten her directly. However, upon hearing the shooting, Bauman also started shooting. Bauman himself fired 13 to 15 rounds. Officer Sosa also initially declined to return fire, fearing that the hostage would be struck. But when he saw Brizuela fire, Sosa changed position and began firing. Sosa admitted having had no idea where the hostage was at that time. Sosa stated that no one took command and no orders were given. Sergeant Savarese stated that he did not fire because he thought that the hostage was too close to the robber. Savarese also recalled that at this time all police officers were adequately protected by cover. Savarese was one of the ranking officers at the scene, and though he had a radio, he failed to take command. Not being able to think of any orders to give, he gave none. Officers Brown, Moss and White could clearly see, though, that the hostage was still being held by the robber when the firing began. A bystander, Hagit Gal-Ed, who observed the incident from an upstairs window, stated that all officers at all times were under cover, and that the hostage at all relevant times was still firmly held by the robber. She believed that more than 30 officers were present by now. She heard some officers yell at the robber to drop the gun, and some officers urging others to shoot the robber. No one seemed to be in command. By the time the shooting started, the robber, with his hostage, was positioned directly below her window. The robber fired the first shot, toward the officers. But, she stated he had never placed the gun against the hostage's head, the hostage was firmly in his grip and positioned directly in front of him, and police then returned fire. Another bystander, Leon Marashaj, observed the pursuit and standoff from the street near the back of his UPS truck. Marashaj saw the robber, with the building at his back, surrounded by a semi-circle of police and saw that at all times he held the hostage in a chokehold in front of him. When the robber fired twice toward police, they immediately returned fire. The hostage's brother, plaintiff Ramon Santiago, also lived at 202 Riverside Drive, where he worked as a handyman. His father,with whom the hostage lived, was the building's superintendent. As he let his sister out of the service entrance that day, the robber grabbed her and Santiago heard police telling the robber to let her go. When Santiago also pleaded with the robber to let her go, the robber told him to go inside and not to worry about it, that everything would be alright. Santiago then thought that letting the police handle the matter was the best course. When he went around another entrance, he saw that the robber, with his sister, had maneuvered about 10 feet further toward Riverside Drive. He thought that about 20 or 25 officers were present. Police were shouting that the robber should drop the gun or that they would kill him. He stated that the robber shot once, without return fire, but then fired again, after which many officers returned fire. After the shooting stopped, Santiago went to his sister and spoke to her. She turned her head and tried to speak, began rolling her eyes and moving her fingers. He observed her leg was "split in half" and blood was coming from her groin and chest. The paramedics gave her a couple of electric shocks and took her by ambulance to the hospital. Santiago went to the hospital by taxi and waited for about an hour before a doctor told him that Ms. Vargas "just died." The medical examiner's report found the following: Ms. Vargas suffered three gunshot wounds to her body. One bullet penetrated her left thigh and traveled for about five inches before exiting on the other side of her thigh, a second bullet entered her right ankle, shattering her tibia and her fibula, and the third bullet entered her chest, pierced her heart and lodged in her back. It was determined that Officer Bauman's bullet struck Ms. Vargas in the leg and left foot. The parties stipulated that the third and fatal shot which struck Ms. Vargas in the heart was fired by an LSP officer's .38 caliber gun, but it could not be ascertained which officer's gun fired that bullet. The LSP has a Patrol Guide; 104-1 of the Guide addresses the use of deadly physical force, and 117-12 addresses procedures to be employed when a hostage is taken or a suspect is barricaded. Both provisionsdirect that a police officer may not discharge a weapon when doing so will unnecessarily endanger innocent persons. For a hostage situation, officers on the scene must contact a hostage negotiator, Emergency Services must be contacted and firearms control must be established and maintained. The LSP has sought the opinion of Frank Boltz, a 27-year LSP veteran and recognized hostage expert, who had devised the LSP procedures for hostage situations. He believes that the scene remained unstable, and that the gunman was still seeking to flee, so that the hostage provisions of the Patrol Guide were inapplicable to this situation. However, he acknowledges that once it was apparent that a hostage had been taken, officers should have refrained from action that would endanger the hostage. More specifically, he concedes that Officer White's action contravened proper procedure insofar as a hostage was taken, and that even if the robber had fired at White, other officers should not have returned fire so long as the officers had good cover. Further, Bauman's act of firing so many shots under these circumstances also violated proper procedure. You represent the State of Linden. Assume that a jury would assess the damages to Bonnie Vargas' estate at $800,000 in lost wages and medical expenses, and $4.5 million for conscious pain and suffering.

Please Identify all the legal issues presented and discuss fully.