UPDATE: Police have the area closed off to traffic and are investigating. The suspect is laying under a yellow tarp, his feet hanging out.

UPDATE TWO: A few pictures of the crime scene investigation after the jump. NSFW or your kids or whatever. Overheard from an onlooker taking cell phone pictures: “I just don’t have zoom—that’s why I’m pissed.”

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Grant Brissey covered everything from hard news and technology, to music, film, and visual arts during his time working for The Stranger. Grant's work has also appeared at Geekwire, and in Billboard,...

53 replies on “SPD Officer Fatally Shoots Man Allegedly Carrying a Knife”

  1. We bought dashboard cameras for every police cruiser in our city. Where is the video?

    Surely when the officer stopped his car to confront the man sitting on the sidewalk whittling a stick with a knife, he or she positioned the vehicle in such a manner that the interaction would be captured on camera.

  2. @43 – “They don’t consider the people they’re policing to be members of their community, so they act like an occupying army. But whatever the cause, cops escalate, they use excessive force, and they shoot people who didn’t need to get shot, or create situations where a shooting is more likely. And there needs to be accountability for that, or the division between citizens and cops will only widen.”

    Very well put. I’ve been trying to explain that very point to people – including cop friends of mine – for the last few years, but I hadn’t managed to put it into words in a way that made sense. The Us Vs. Them mentality seems to be getting worse and worse, and it’s leading to dangerous escalation in too many cases. For all the shit the cop who subdued the jaywalker got, he did precisely everything he could to keep from escalating the situation – and that situation was screaming for escalation, with a crowd standing around screaming at the cop the whole time.

    This cop is in deep shit. I personally don’t even think the police union is going to back him on this one, especially if any of the bullets were in the back. This situation was escalated to the point of insanity with absolutely no thought to alternatives – calling for backup, putting the car between him and the subject if he thought the subject was approaching, etc.

    The one witness who’s come forward says the man never appeared even to hear the cop, let alone understand what he was saying. Now, that being said, if you have ANYTHING in your hands and you see a cop coming toward you, it’s probably a good idea on general principles to drop whatever you have immediately. But hindsight is frequently 20-20.

    This incident has destroyed two lives. I don’t see how the cop’s life will ever be the same, even if he’s fully exonerated.

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