Testimony continued Wednesday for the King County inquest into the death of Che Taylor, with the day spent largely on the two officers who were the first car of backup to arrive on the scene of Taylor’s death. Taylor died last February after he received multiple gunshot wounds from Seattle Police Department officers Michael Spaulding and Scott Miller.
Spaulding and Miller have yet to testify in the inquest hearing.
Seattle Police Officer Audi Acuesta, who was driving the first patrol car to provide backup to Spaulding and Miller, and caught the dash cam video that has been the most prominent piece of evidence in the trial, spent over an hour on the witness stand answering questions about his role in the incident.
On the day of Taylor’s death, Acuesta was staged in a marked patrol car one block away from Spaulding and Miller, who were observing a house that Taylor had been seen going into. According to Acuesta’s testimony, he was called to the scene by Miller and Spaulding after they saw Taylor, a known felon, walk into the house with a holstered handgun on his hip.
Much of Acuesta’s testimony has been based on what he saw in the seconds before the two SPD officers opened fire on Taylor. Spaulding and Miller attempted to arrest Taylor after he left the house and was standing next to the open door of a white sedan, according to court documents. As the two officers moved in to arrest Taylor, Acuesta pulled up from the opposite direction in his marked patrol car, exited his car and stood in front of the sedan that Taylor was standing beside.
What happens next is a point of disagreement between police accounts and what the Taylor family believe happened. Police say that Taylor was refusing commands, the Taylor family say that police were giving the 43-year-old commands to both put his hands up and get on the ground.
Acuesta testified that he could see Taylor begin to raise his hands up to his chest level before moving down to the ground and becoming obscured from Acuesta’s view by an open car door. Acuesta testified that he did not see Taylor point a gun at any officer or see him reach for a gun during the incident. In Acuesta’s dash cam video, you can hear him say, after Taylor has already been shot, that he sees a holster on Taylor's side. A loaded handgun was found inside the car during the crime scene investigation that followed the shooting.
During a subsequent line of questioning, Acuesta’s partner, Officer Timothy Barnes, testified that all four officers at the scene were telling Taylor to both “get down on the ground” and “hands up.”
James Bible, an attorney for the Taylor family, questioned if it was possible for Taylor to comply with the commands to get on the ground with the car door open directly in front of him.
“Given where Mr. Taylor was standing at the time that you were yelling instructions to him, if he had gotten down on the ground right there, a portion of him would have to go through the car, correct?” Bible said.
“I didn’t think it was physically possible for him to get on the ground right there, he would have had to move back,” Barnes replied.
Barnes later said that he thought Taylor could have complied with the commands by walking backwards before getting on the ground.
A procedural incident created some drama between Judge Janet Garrow and Bible during the day’s proceedings.
Garrow has allowed each witness in the inquest to request that their face not be captured by video or photos during their testimony; The Stranger and The Seattle Times have formally petitioned that these requests not be granted for officers or other public officials unless protecting their identity is key to their work. SPD Officer Joe Stankovich, who responded to the Taylor incident shortly after Taylor was shot by police, asked Garrow to block any photographs of his face during his testimony because, in his words, the inquiry was concerning a “high profile, racially-charged event” and he feared retaliation.
After Garrow granted Stankovich’s request, Bible objected to the judge’s decision. During the heated exchange that followed, Garrow cut off Bible’s objection with a hammer of her gavel and told him: “Mr. Bible I don’t want to hold you in contempt of court.”
“If you do, it’s because I’m black,” Bible responded.
Read about the emotional second day of the Che Taylor inquest here. And read about jury selection and more background on the proceedings in Monday’s update here.
