On Tuesday, an officer with the Seattle police department shot a knife-wielding man near the Jungle. Police said two officers came upon the man with the knife as he was engaged in a fight with another man, who sustained a minor injury.
“No Taser or other less lethal force option was used during the encounter,” spokesperson Sean Whitcomb told The Stranger. The officer who fired was carrying pepper-spray, Whitcomb said, but no Taser.
The man who was shot, Michael Taylor, died of his injuries. The Jungle, the area under I-5 where homeless people have sought shelter, was being swept and emptied of people that day under the direction of Mayor Ed Murray—an effort protested by some homeless advocates. The officers were in the area to help facilitate the encampment sweep.
Sergeant Heidi Tuttle, a 20-year veteran of the police force, has been identified by the department as the officer who fired on Taylor. Following standard procedure, she is now on paid leave as the SPD investigates the incident.
Taylor’s father told The Seattle Times that Taylor was adopted from South Korea at the age of five, and that he “wants more information on why police believed they had no alternative to shooting his son.”
As police investigate the circumstances of this shooting they are, to their immense credit, being careful to offer no prejudgment about the officer’s actions one way or another.
The shooting is currently being reviewed by the Force Investigation Team, a special unit within the SPD—a practice, as has been pointed out before, that goes against the recommendation of President Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force for external, independent investigations into police killings.
“The police made a mistake,” a friend of Michael’s told KUOW in an interview. It’s unclear if this man witnessed the incident. “They shot him for nothing, man.”
It’s also not completely clear if video or audio exists of the shooting.
Under Chief Kathleen O’Toole’s leadership, Seattle police have made a nation-leading practice of releasing video and audio related to these incidents within 24 hours, in a bid to be transparent. Whitcomb said he was “not aware” of any video or audio that exists in this case.