Background Circle Background Circle
Jury Found Two Seattle Officers Justified In Shooting Charleena Lyles in 2017

Jury Found Two Seattle Officers Justified In Shooting Charleena Lyles in 2017

SEATTLE (AP) — An inquest jury found Wednesday that two Seattle police officers were justified in fatally shooting a mentally unstable, pregnant, Black mother of four children inside her apartment when she menaced them with knives in 2017.

The six King County coroner’s inquest jurors unanimously determined that officers Jason Anderson and Steven McNew, who are white, had no reasonable alternative to using deadly force. The findings drew an angry outburst from Lyles’ father, who shouted profanities and yelled, “You killed my daughter!”

The officers testified that Lyles, who had threatened other officers with shears two weeks earlier and spoke of morphing into a wolf, had been calmly speaking with them after calling to report a purported burglary when she suddenly lunged at one with a knife.

As the officers drew their weapons, Lyles yelled “Do it!” and cursed at them. The officers repeatedly yelled for her to get back before firing, hitting her seven times. The jury found that even if the officers had a Taser, it would not have been an effective or appropriate option as she advanced on them in the close confines of the apartment, The Seattle Times reported.

Her crying baby crawled over and climbed on top of her as she died, and a boy came out of a bedroom and said, in tears, “You shot my mother,” the officers recalled in emotional testimony.

Lyles was 15 weeks pregnant.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg issued a statement saying he would review the evidence presented at the inquest as well as the findings in deciding whether to press charges against the officers.

“Charleena Lyles’ death is a tragedy,” Satterberg said. “Details of the incident shared at the inquest are heartbreaking.”

Her death unleashed a storm of public protest and has been held up by advocates of police reforms as demonstrating unnecessary police violence and institutional racism by law enforcement.

Family members questioned why the officers, who had been trained to deal with people showing signs of mental illness or other behavior crises, didn’t use nonlethal methods to subdue her. Anderson did not have his Taser with him — the battery was dead — and he was later suspended for two days without pay for violating department policy.

Under questioning from the family’s lawyer, Karen Koehler, a Seattle police detective who helped review the shooting acknowledged that the officers had made no plan for dealing with Lyles aside from not allowing her to get behind them.

The family last year settled a civil lawsuit against the officers and the Seattle Police Department for $3.5 million.

The inquest began after a years-long delay prompted by revisions to the coroner’s inquest process. It included six days of testimony. The jurors were asked to consider Lyles’ death in light of the police deadly force law that was in effect in 2017, which requires a finding of “actual malice” by the officer — a standard that was changed in 2018 by voter approval of Initiative 940, after prosecutors and lawmakers concluded it was virtually impossible to meet that standard to charge an officer with murder.

An inquest jury can determine if law enforcement violated any policies and potentially any criminal laws. But any decision to charge a police officer is made by the King County prosecutor.

Source link

Related Posts
Louisiana Man Donates Basketball Hoop To 8-Year-Old After He Saw Him Shooting Ball In Trash Can
Louisiana Man Donates Basketball Hoop To 8-Year-Old After He Saw Him Shooting Ball In Trash Can

Good Morning America shared a heartwarming story on Thursday highlighting the selfless acts of kindness by Devin Hinkston, a 30-year-old man Read more

A Police Officer’s Posthumous Wish Was To Admit He’d Covered Up Evidence In Malcolm X’s Assassination Case
A Police Officer’s Posthumous Wish Was To Admit He’d Covered Up Evidence In Malcolm X’s Assassination Case

A former NYPD police officer had a dying wish to have his letter, in which he admits he'd been a Read more

Grand Jury Decides No Charges Will Be Brought Against Rochester Cops In Daniel Prude Case
Grand Jury Decides No Charges Will Be Brought Against Rochester Cops In Daniel Prude Case

The Rochester police officers who suffocated 41-year-old Daniel Prude last year by placing a hood over his head and pressing it Read more

No charges against officers involved in Daniel Prude’s death
No charges against officers involved in Daniel Prude’s death

Police officers who put a hood over the head of a mentally distraught Black man, then pressed his body against Read more

Oklahoma City Police Officer Charged With Manslaughter For Shooting Bennie Edwards In The Back Three Times While He Ran Away
Oklahoma City Police Officer Charged With Manslaughter For Shooting Bennie Edwards In The Back Three Times While He Ran Away

A Oklahoma City officer shot a death homeless man in December has been charged with first-degree manslaughter. The shooting took Read more

Black Cop Fired After Being Heard Saying ‘N****s’ During Arrest, Police Chief Says He Could Damage Image Of Officers Everywhere
Black Cop Fired After Being Heard Saying ‘N****s’ During Arrest, Police Chief Says He Could Damage Image Of Officers Everywhere

A Black Tampa, Florida police officer Delvin White was fired from his job this week after a random body camera audit Read more

‘Bad Girls Club’ Star Deshayla Harris Killed During Shooting In Virginia Beach
‘Bad Girls Club’ Star Deshayla Harris Killed During Shooting In Virginia Beach

In another encounter that happened nearby around the same time, police shot and killed 25-year-old Donovon Lynch, who they described as Read more

Michael Jordan – Toujours plus haut (Above and Beyond) – VF – 1996
Michael Jordan – Toujours plus haut (Above and Beyond) – VF – 1996

Documentaire sur la premiere retraite de Michael Jordan et son retour en NBA commenté en français par George Eddy, VHS Read more

Texas seven officers involved in the in-custody death of a Black jail inmate
Texas seven officers involved in the in-custody death of a Black jail inmate

McKINNEY, Texas — Seven officers involved in the in-custody death of a Black jail inmate in Texas whose family members Read more

Body camera footage shows LAPD officers arrest Black man while looking for white suspect
Body camera footage shows LAPD officers arrest Black man while looking for white suspect

“In your mind, you want to say to yourself, ‘It happened because I’m Black,’ and then you don’t want to Read more

Police Chief says shooting death of Daunte Wright was ‘an accidental discharge’
Police Chief says shooting death of Daunte Wright was ‘an accidental discharge’

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — The police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Read more

Trevor Noah Makes Painfully Accurate Point About Daunte Wright Shooting
Trevor Noah Makes Painfully Accurate Point About Daunte Wright Shooting

Noah added in how he finds it astonishing that police can mistake other items for weapons, “except their own gun.” “And Read more