Linegar v. Armour of America, Inc.

Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper, Jimmy Linegar, was conducting a routine traffic check and stopped a car with a Nevada license plate. The driver gave Linegar an Oregon driver’s license bearing the name Matthew Mark Samuels. However, from the patrol dispatcher, Linegar discovered that the name was an alias for a David Tate, who had an outstanding warrant for a weapons charge. Linegar was unsure that the description the dispatcher gave for David Tate matched the driver, so he decided to investigate further.

Allen Hines, another trooper on the scene with Linegar, approached the passenger side of the car while Linegar approached the driver’s side. After some questioning, Linegar asked the driver to step out of the vehicle. The driver, who was in fact David Tate, then brandished an automatic weapon and fired at the troopers. Tate first fired from inside the van and then from outside the van. By the time Tate finished shooting, Hines had been wounded by three shots and Linegar, whose body was shot by six bullets, laid dead. None of the five shots that hit the contour style protective vest he was wearing penetrated the vest or caused injury. The wounds Linegar suffered were caused by shots that struck parts of his body not protected by the vest.

The vest Linegar was wearing was issued to him by the Missouri State Highway Patrol when he joined the Patrol. The contour style was one of several different styles of vests then on the market and provided more protection to the sides of the body than the style that featured rectangular panels in front and back. However, it did not provide as much protection as a wrap around style vest. The front and back panels of the vest Linegar was wearing were held together by Velcro closures under the arms and did not meet at the sides of the body. This left an area along the sides and under the arms that were exposed when the vest was worn. This feature of the vest was obvious to the Patrol when they selected it. The area left exposed by the vest was area where Linegar suffered fatal wounds.