During a briefing this morning, Seattle City Council members Lorena González and Kshama Sawant sparred over how the city should move forward in addressing the police killing of Charleena Lyles.

On June 18, two white Seattle Police officers shot and killed Lyles, a pregnant black mother of four, after she called 911 to report a burglary at her home. Two officers arrived at her apartment, where the situation quickly escalated. In interviews, the officers said they feared for their lives after Lyles produced a knife during the encounter. Her family has wondered why the officers, Steve McNew and Jason Anderson, did not use less lethal force, like a taser. Neither of the officers was carrying a Taser, although Anderson was trained to use the device, which means, according to department policy, he should've carried it with him at all times. Anderson said he didn't have it with him because the battery was dead and that he would not have used it anyway. The case has reignited ongoing questions about the SPD's training and use of force against people of color.

In response, some Seattle City Council members called for a public hearing on the shooting and last week González, who chairs the council's public safety committee, scheduled one. It will take place tomorrow night at 6 pm at the University of Washington's Kane Hall.

But Sawant is demanding more. Sawant says SPD Chief Kathleen O'Toole should be present at the hearing tomorrow to "directly answer" questions about the shooting and investigation. González says that's not happening.

"In my view, this is not a public forum designed to be a public deposition of elected leaders and our chief of police," González said. The hearing is designed to be an opportunity for the public to express "grief" and "anger," González said, and for elected leaders to "think more concretely about how we're going to address some of these concerns." ("For edification purposes," she added, the chief isn't the one who directly investigates officers in cases like this.)

Sawant, who called the killing of Lyles "absolutely horrific," said the city council "should be going into overdrive... at the very least asking tough questions, but that is not enough."

"What the community needs is not a space to grieve... The grief exists because there are no results in terms of police accountability," Sawant said.

Sawant has also called for a third-party investigation of the shooting, casting skepticism on the city's current investigations processes. (In an interview Friday, representatives in Sawant's office could not specify who exactly might lead such an investigation.)

González, who once represented a man who sued the SPD for civil rights violations, said "it’s important to continue to signal to the community we believe in those processes."

The council recently passed a package of reforms designed to strengthen oversight of the department, but those changes won't take effect until the city finishes bargaining with the unions that represent police officers and leadership. Along with that package of reforms, the city council passed a resolution to study other potential reforms, including whether the city should use "external investigators" to investigate police killings. González urged caution in calling for an independent investigation before that conversation happens.

The question of who exactly should lead such third-party investigations, González said, is "complex."

"What is not complex, council members," Sawant responded, "is that the police investigating themselves is not working."