Seattle Police Department Officer Michael Spaulding spoke publicly Friday for the first time since he and SPD Officer Scott Miller, shot and killed Che Taylor last February.
Spaulding’s testimony described a chaotic scene in the minutes before the shooting, with moving cars and unexpected individuals muddling the officers’ attempts to safely arrest Taylor.
Spaulding also admitted that he shot Taylor without ever personally seeing the gun that SPD alleges was holstered on Taylor’s hip during the incident.
Both Spaulding and Miller, who are white, shot Taylor, a 46-year-old black man, multiple times on Feb. 21 of last year. An internal SPD investigation cleared the two officers of any wrongdoing but the incident is now going through an inquest hearing, a judicial fact finding process that lays out evidence and testimony in front of an eight-member jury, who answer a list of questions at the end of the hearing. No criminal or civil penalties are levied by the hearing, but the jury’s findings will factor into the King County Prosecuting Office’s pending decision on what, if any, legal action should be taken against the officers.
Spaulding and Miller had no intention of seeing Taylor on that bright Sunday afternoon in February. They were in an undercover car staking out an apartment on NE 85th street with a known narcotics dealer when they saw a black Dodge Magnum slowly drive past them and park near them a few driveways away. Spaulding said he had been monitoring Taylor, a known felon, on social media and knew he had recently purchased a Dodge Magnum. As soon as Taylor exited the Magnum, Spaulding and Miller recognized him.
Spaulding said Miller noticed a handgun holstered on Taylor’s right hip as he exited his car but Spaulding himself did not notice it because he had turned to his phone to do a search on Taylor’s car plates. Because Taylor was a known felon without the right to carry a firearm, the two officers had probable cause to arrest him, so they called for backup and continued to observe, according to Spaulding.
When Taylor walked into the apartment the two officers were staking out, Spaulding went to the trunk of their undercover car to grab a rifle and a shotgun.
“The decision was made to get our long guns because we knew we were going up against a criminal with a violent past and we knew he was armed,” Spaulding said. “[With long guns instead of handguns] We would have a bigger advantage if something happened.”
Spaulding said the two officers then hatched a plan—to arrest Taylor when he exited the apartment and was crossing the street, in an area where he wouldn’t be able to get into his vehicle or find cover. That plan went awry when Taylor exited the apartment with an additional individual and started to walk around the apartment’s courtyard, partially out of view. Then, as Taylor was walking back and forth, a van parked in front of the officer’s undercover car and completely obscured their view.
Taylor then entered a white sedan that had been parked and drove off with two other individuals in the car. Only a few minutes passed before that white sedan returned to the block and parked within thirty feet of the two undercover officers. Spaulding and Miller then put the backup officers on hold while they waited for Taylor to exit the sedan and enter his own car. Taylor opened the door and stood up, Spaulding and Miller called in their backup, but then Taylor did not leave the car’s area, standing next to the open door and complicating the arrest.
“Instead of shutting the door he ducked back in and started talking to them again,” Spaulding said. “We decided to exit the vehicle and make the arrest.”
With the backup patrol car with its flashing lights on approaching the white sedan from the front, Spaulding and Miller ran at the vehicle from the rear.
“I made it to his back corner without him even knowing. I said, ‘Che let me see your hands! Get on the ground now.’ He looked at me and said ‘what, what’s going on?’ I gave him another command and said ‘get on the ground now’ and he said ‘OK, OK,” Spaulding said.
Spaulding said Taylor started to follow commands to get down but then stopped and reached for his gun.
“As he crouched down I saw his right arm go to his right hip and stop and I knew that’s where the gun was,” Spaulding said.
Spaulding said he couldn’t see the gun itself but recognized Taylor’s arm motion as that of unholstering a gun.
“As his right hand got to the right I could see his elbow going straight up which indicated to me that he just drew the handgun. Tt that point I knew that he drew the handgun,” Spaulding said. “I couldn’t see the handgun. It was on the other side of his body but that motion and going straight up, I could see his elbow unholstering the handgun, and at that point I fired my rifle at the same time as creating distance and moving back.”
Spaulding said he couldn’t wait another moment to see what Taylor was reaching for.
“I couldn’t take that risk. I didn’t know that he threw the gun. If he had gotten to that point he would have gotten a round off,” Spaulding said. “I thought he was going to shoot either Scott or I.”
Although you can clearly see Spaulding firing at Taylor in the video captured by the SPD patrol car at the scene, Taylor’s movements are almost entirely obscured because he standing on the opposite side of the white sedan from the video’s perspective.
Spaulding said Taylor fell into the car as the two SPD officers fired multiple rounds at him.
“When he was shot, he fell forward into the floorboard area of the white Ford Taurus and then he slid back and rolled to his shoulder with his right arm up,” Spaulding said.
A black handgun was later found on the front passenger floorboards of the car and medic personnel testified that a holster was on Taylor’s belt when they arrived to the scene.
Spaulding was unable recall multiple details from the scene of the incident, testifying that he was “ultra-focused” on Taylor during the entire encounter. Spaulding could not recall where backup officers were at the scene, what the other officer’s commands were towards Taylor, what precisely he told Taylor or how many shots he had fired at Taylor.
In a report to SPD investigators following the shooting, Spaulding said that he had fired “about three rounds” at Taylor from his rifle. Analysis of the rifle and the scene showed that Spaulding had actually fired six rounds.
Spaulding can be heard from the dash cam video saying “wait, wait,” immediately before he begins shooting Taylor. Spaulding said he doesn’t remember saying that.
“I didn’t realize that I had said that,” Spaulding said.
Miller has yet to testify at the hearing, but is expected to speak Monday.
Read more background on the case and about the hearing’s jury selection in our post on Monday. Read about the emotional second day here. Read about the back-up officers’ testimony from Wednesday here. Read about medical testimony from Thursday’s hearing here.
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