And still no explanation of why instead of trying to kill Williams, Birk didn't step backward, increasing the distance between himself and Williams to that at which a stumbling middle-aged drunk with a small knife is not a threat to a healthy young police officer with a gun.

it looks like he was face-up when the second car arrived. it would be hard to land face up like that if you were shot in the back, especially if you were walking the other way

I admit I'm repeating myself @1, but I've yet to hear or read others questioning Birk's assertion that after he approached Williams, who was carrying a knife, and found himself within short-run-and-stabbing range, the logical response was to kill Williams. Wouldn't the logical response have been to BACK THE FUCK AWAY from the man with the knife? Is it just assumed that cop machismo precludes retreat?

If Birk was in danger, it's because he put himself there. He saw a guy with a knife walking down the street minding his own business, stopped his car and got out, approached the man -- who, as far as we know, was either walking away from Birk or stopped -- and kept approaching until he found himself at a distance from the guy with a knife that he know claims put his life in danger. When he was one step into the danger zone, one step back would have put him out of danger. Instead of stepping back, he killed the man. It's inexcusable.

It's probably procedure, but it just looks funny how they approach his body @1:30.

Reminds me of being a little kid and finding some gross shit on the ground then daring everyone else to go touch it.

3: He was shot in the SIDE, and the momentum of the bullets could have rotated his body as it was falling (causing it to turn either way), or he could have been in the process of turning to face the officer (and continued to turn as he fell due to that momentum). Or perhaps a combination of both processes.

Yes, how does he get shot from the side or back and end up lying very orderly face-up? Seems unlikely, but who knows?

Officer Birk overreacted horribly to a situation he created, and now we get to watch as he is slapped on the wrist. He'll end up making more money in private security, and the next crazed issue of The Guardian can whine about the "Socialists" who brought him down.

jesus christ. this story just breaks my heart more and more each time ther is more information.

@7 I am pretty sure they proved without a doubt on myth-busters that bullets don't have enough momentum and mass to move a human body one way or another. Too much hollywood stunts are to blame for everyone's ignorance on this issue.

I find it really hard to believe that a police officer felt threatened by Williams. His death was completely unnecessary.

One question I haven't heard asked or answered during this inquest so far: Had Officer Birk already drawn his gun before he began shouting "Hey! Hey! Hey!" at Williams' back? In the dash-cam video you can see that Birk is carrying something as he crosses in front of his car, but I can't tell what it is. One or more of the witness statements I've read says explicitly that Birk unholstered his gun immediately after he got out of his car.

If this is accurate, it gets that much harder for Birk to claim that he shot Williams out of necessity, as a last resort to save his own life. It would seem instead that he already had plans to use his gun as soon as he went in pursuit of Williams.

So -- has this question been asked? Will it be asked? And to add some context, what exactly is SPD's policy on cops drawing their guns? Are they supposed to do it whenever they feel like it, regardless of the situation, or are there some criteria that need to be met first?

So Williams has been shot and they are just letting him lie there.....

Is it just me or do they look like hunters admiring one of their buddie's fresh kills?

Hopefully Birk is cleared and back on the job. The attacks on Officer Birk are vile even for notoriously anti-cop Seattle. Birk put put his life on the line everyday. You'd think we could give him the benefit of a doubt instead of martyrdom for that belligerent drunk native on the sidewalk.

That box would've made a pretty good cover from a knife attack, wouldn't it?

I make no assertions as to whether Birk's actions overall were justified, but I do assert that the box is totally irrelevent. My understanding of the general philosophy of police procedures is that, if a non-compliant person does present an immediate deadly threat to you or others, you kill that person. You do not attempt to wound in order to disable. You do not take cover and let the person control the scene. Again, I don't know if Williams did present an immeate deadly threat, but if he did, hiding behind the box does not constitute the prefered police procedure.

@14: You're right. Being a drunk Indian is a capital offence, subject to summary execution. How silly of us to forget that.

@14: TYS, I don't think Birk put his life on the line every day. I suspect that most days, he drove around listening to sports radio like he was doing when he stopped to harass Williams.

Meanwhile, Tim Eyman continues to blow thru red lights and gets off scot free.

Where's the rest of the video? I'd like to hear more of the conversation that was captured by Leavitt's microphone...

compare and contrast:

http://i.imgur.com/TuBH4.jpg

What the fuck? It takes a dozen cops holding hands to check out a dead body?

What the fuck is the point of them all approaching in a line like that? Everyone past the first or second cop would just be in each other's way if it were someone playing possum, wouldn't they? Why not just let one or two cops approach the "suspect"?

And second, what the fuck is Birk standing around for? He was the only cop there at the shooting, so he knows there's no gun and he knows there's no accomplice. Is it police procedure to let someone you've shot who has no chance of getting up just lie there and bleed out?

Can anyone explain the reason for the "tactical line" at the end? I'm honestly confused by that. Why is that supposedly standard procedure for these situations?

Setting aside the fact that he seems to be obviously incapacitated, I don't understand how that would help if he were still a threat and were to suddenly jump up with a knife. There would only be two people in front of him to get the brunt of his knife attack, rather than being surrounded on all sides by cops who could take him down.

That's a lot of white men in uniforms to "keep the peace". White men make up, what, 15% percent of Seattle?

@24

Exactly the question I was asking, though you phrased it better.

Not to mention that they are between that box and the low wall, which kind of traps them.

There's a line in a Sherman Alexie book in which a local indian is harassed by the cops for not "fitting the profile of this country," or something like that.

I'd like to hear what Sherman Alexie thinks.

@24: Clearly you've not thought it through.

To be clear, I have profound and serious problems with this shooting, but this video poses no problems to me except perhaps the way they wrenched his arm when they first reached him.

In this kind of a situation, it's like a felony stop, the only context is the fact that an officer just fired at somebody, which to all the other officers by default means that the guy was a deadly threat. Until he is actually completely secured, he remains a deadly threat. It doesn't matter if he looks obviously dead or not.

They form a line like that because if he moves, reaches for a weapon, whatever, the DUMBEST thing you could ever do is be arranged in a giant circle all standing around and shooting at the same thing. You form a line, and you approach the car/person/whatever as a straight line so everyone's line of fire is in the same direction and there isn't any crossfire. Cops get shot all the time by other cops because of this, and it's also basic infantry tactics.

As far as everything in this second video, I'm actually profoundly surprised at how calm and orderly the situation is, and everything I see here is very professional and definitely follows procedure AFAIK. Unfortunately, it's what preceded this video which more and more I'm convinced was an unjustifiable homicide. But as far as problems with anything that's happening here, I don't see it.

@27: He'd probably give you a lot of shit for wondering what he thinks, as if he's connected to this in any way, except as a universal racial stand-in spokesman, which is a crock of bullshit.

But, you know what, I'd also like to know what he thinks, so... ;)

10: OK then. If what you say is true (and it very probably is; I merely mentioned it as a possibility), it was most likely a continuation of his rotational velocity from turning to find out what all the shouting behind him was about.
It doesn't take a lot for a segmented, flexible dead weight to rotate slightly as it falls, and it's unlikely that a dropped body is going to end up lying on its edge. Try it with a pillow for a broad idea of the principle.

Sherman Alexie has been very silent, as far as I know. Being a popular writer AND a Native American, you'd think he'd come out in the media and say something, but he hasn't. Guess he's too busy condemning any Natives who aren't fullbloods (like he is??? Not.)