The recent killing of John T. Williams at the hands of a Seattle Police Department (SPD) officer, which first triggered serious questions and then serious outrage, is now triggering a movement. Hundreds of people attended a candlelight vigil for the Native American man on September 2, the crowd spilling out onto Second Avenue late into the night. Since then, the mood has shifted from somber to angry—and next week, on September 16, several groups are planning a protest. The details are still forthcoming, but the central message is clear: They want accountability from the police department and city hall—which has so far been lacking.
In its entirety, SPD says that the incident with Williams—from the time Officer Ian Birk pulled over until he fired his gun—happened in under a minute. At 4:15 p.m. on August 30, Birk, a 27-year-old officer who has worked for the SPD for two years, saw Williams crossing Howell Street with a piece of wood and a knife. Footage from an in-car patrol camera shows both men cross in front of the car and move out of view. “The only thing we know for sure is the individual had a knife,” said Chief John Diaz at a press conference on August 31. “We know from audio recordings that the officer issued at least three commands for the suspect to drop his knife.” But Williams allegedly refused Birk’s orders. From approximately 9 to 10 feet away, Birk fired four rounds.
Williams fell to the ground, Birk called for backup, and officers arrived within a minute and a half. Williams was declared dead at the scene. Later, family and friends confirmed that the 50-year-old man was a wood carver from the Ditidaht and Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations tribes in British Columbia and that he was partially deaf. The knife he was carrying had a three-inch blade, which is legal according to the Seattle Municipal Code.
Preliminary reports that Williams lunged at Birk have since been retracted. “We dropped the lunging and advancing [allegations] pending further need for investigation,” says police spokesman Sean Whitcomb.
A witness told the Seattle Times, “His body stance did not look threatening at all. I could only see the gentleman’s back, and he didn’t look aggressive at all. He didn’t even look up at the officer.”
This is exactly the sort of quick escalation the city has been trying to avoid. Before Diaz was sworn in as the police chief on August 16, the Seattle City Council presented him with a four-point letter highlighting the areas where the SPD needs to make dramatic improvements. The council wrote that Diaz needed to “quickly develop and fully implement the most effective training available for minimizing and de-escalating conflict in encounters between officers and civilians.”
Seattle officers and civilians have had a series of high-profile conflicts that escalated rapidly: on September 4, officers using a Taser on a man who later died; an officer punching a 17-year-old girl in the face after a routine jaywalking stop in June; Officer Shandy Cobane apparently stomping the head of a Latino suspect in April while shouting, “I’m going to beat the fucking Mexican piss out of you, homie,” as the man lay face down on the pavement (King County prosecutors declined to charge Cobane with a felony hate crime); a mentally disabled teenager allegedly beaten by three officers for jaywalking in July 2009 (exonerated of wrongdoing by SPD’s Office of Professional Accountability; the teen has filed a lawsuit against SPD and the City of Seattle).
The Williams incident only exacerbates concerns shared by many in the city that the Seattle Police Department has carte blanche to use excessive force, particularly on marginalized populations.
“The inquest process in King County rarely leads to any form of justice whatsoever,” says James Bible, chapter president of the NAACP. “The families are rarely represented. The shootings are almost always deemed justified. There hasn’t been a single use-of-force complaint in the past couple of years that the SPD hasn’t deemed sustained—as in it never really happened.”
Jenine Grey, executive director of the Chief Seattle Club, said at the September 2 candlelight vigil for Williams, “We weren’t getting answers from the police department. As more details emerged, I got angry. I have a ton of questions… Why did this have to happen? Why didn’t the officer subdue him? Why take his life?” Grey added that no one from SPD contacted the Chief Seattle Club or members of Williams’s tribe until two days after the shooting. The Chief Seattle Club offers food, shelter, showers, and health care to Native Americans in need of such services.
Mayor Mike McGinn acknowledged those concerns last Friday when reached by phone, but he stopped short of taking responsibility for the police administration and personally seeing that the problem is fixed. “I know that there are concerns in the community about issues around racial profiling or how we treat homeless people,” he said. “These are concerns that I share. I think it’s critical that our government and our police department are responsive to those concerns.”
Diaz said at a press conference after the shooting that he has “a lot more questions than answers.” Like McGinn, Diaz vowed a thorough investigation. But he, too, stopped short of taking responsibility for whatever happens.
But those investigations, says Bible, “will probably not render any real results, either. It’s more something for those we put in place to be accountable to hide behind.”
McGinn defends his pick for police chief. “When I laid out my criteria for selection of a police chief, the issues that I hoped would be raised included issues of race, social justice, and disparate treatment. It’s my belief that… the police department has to have a commitment to that. I believe Chief Diaz has that commitment.”
Not everyone seems so sure—as evidenced by the protest being planned by the Chief Seattle Club, a union of Native American city employees, the NAACP, Mothers for Police Accountability, and several local tribal leaders.
In the week after the shooting, the Seattle Human Rights Commission and the Native American city employees also expressed grave concern in separate letters to Diaz.
Chief Diaz has stated that his “pledge to citizens is to conduct a transparent investigation, a complete investigation.” That internal investigation is conducted by the department’s homicide unit. Once that investigation is complete, SPD’s firearms review board will determine whether the shooting followed departmental policy. Then the King County Prosecutor’s Office will have an inquest.
“The investigation won’t be enough,” Bible reiterates. “If you are going to have a community policing model, you have to reach out to all of the community. Really force some degree of change, be accountable.” 
This story has been updated since its original publication.
If the horn would have dropped the knife when asked (0rdered) by the officer, an investigation would have shown it was a 3″ blade. How was he to know before hand. Do you have rulers on your eyes? When you people start listening to the police and doing what they tell you, you won’t get hurt. Complain later….. You are not equal to the police when they are giving you a lawful command…. they are superior to you. Yes you pay their salaries, at least those of you who actually work and don’t belly up to the government tit…. Complain after if you don’t agree… if you don’t listen you may end up dead like the horn…… He got what he had coming…..
“You are not equal to the police when they are giving you a lawful command…. they are superior to you.”
That’s enough out of you. You’ve shown your idiocy.
@2 srsly. No one gets to use ‘sheeple’ and get away with it, as far as I’m concerned. (but for the record, i DO have rulers on my eyes.)
@1 – Sure, as a general rule of common sense, don’t fuck with anybody that has a loaded gun and can get away with killing you without much consequence. But that’s about it.
Anyway your point is irrelevant. The guy couldn’t even hear the cop and apparently didn’t know what was happening.
You are just a mindless advocate of authoritarian police state submission. The police are public servants bitch. Wipe my ass.
I wonder if the officer knew who Mr. Williams was. I cannot imagine an officer who works downtown regularly would not have recognized him.
@1 – Trollin hard there buddy…
From #1: Then the drunkard horn should have had “Don’t Taze me Bro I’m deaf” scrawled across his forehead… Like the cop knew? Bottom line… cop tells you to drop something, get down, hands up, don’t move etc….. DO IT Fools!!!!!!
#1 You’re probably a cop, or have a brother that’s a cop. Everyone makes mistakes. The problem when the police make mistakes is that someone gets hurt or killed. The problem with a society that has no ability to police the police is that mistakes no longer are treated as mistakes. (we’re going through this now). They are not corrected, and more people are subjected to those mistakes. Now its the marginalized, but soon enough it will be your wife or son coming home from a football game one night and ends up mouthing off for jaywalking after the game. Oh I forget, they have it coming. #1 you are a full blown calloused asshole who by your own definition has it coming.
@1: Always great to get the law enforcement perspective. Thanks for your dedicated service to the community, and I hope you are absolved like every other one of your force who’s killed people without so much as a reprimand.
Uh, what’s a “horn”? And I thought I knew all the racial slurs, but every jack-booted thug can always make new ones up.
Uh, what’s a “horn”? I thought I knew every racial slur, but I guess every jack-booted cracker redneck thug can think of new ones every day…
There’s something horrible when you hear your friend at work suddenly say “That guy who was shot by the cops, he’s my uncle.”
Homeless people have families too. It’s a shame that so many people, especially many in law enforcement, cannot see that those who appear different from them are actually very much the same. They are not threats, they are not enemies, they’re just people.
John was from the Ditidaht First Nation, not Nuu-chah-nulth.
When the HELL are we going to get a citizen review board?!
I so regret that I did not know about the police and Seattle Indian Community talk in time or I would be there. I knew John and I don’t even frequent downtown. I am especially saddened that it happened to an American Indian, but I am angered that the Seattle Police are apparently targeting people from the margins. Some may try to deny it, but the people hurt listed in Madrid and Holden’s article are all minorities and the events have all occurred in the last few months, so they don’t even go into all the injuries from the last two years! Diaz is NOT going to change anything. We need some one who will not be so ready to send these cops off with a slap on the hand, while more and more violent acts are being carried out by the police for the merchants, the condo owners, and the other well to do in Seattle, who don’t want the unsightly poor in Seattle anymore. I mean seriously, you don’t hear about a University of Washington Student getting punched in the face; and jaywalking is rampant up there! You don’t hear about U.W. students getting any kind of reprimand for jaywalking, so why are the black young girls and disabled being beat for it? Maybe we need to call AIM.
I guess, there’s no reason for Officer Ian Birk not to follow the steps of the Officer Johannes Mehserle. Only without the “involuntary” bs this time.
The peace officer regardless of giving an order 3 times shot a man who was lawfully and legally carrying a knife. In every way this action is clearly murder, and the minor details of the murder victim being deaf, the knife being just the legal length, the officer fearing for his life as the man kept walking with his back to the officer are nothing more than mitigating factors that can be considered at SENTENCING. These are not excuses.
It is clear that the peace officer breached the peace by giving an illegal & unlawful order for the murder victim to drop the knife, and after 3 attempts putting 4 rounds into the murder victim’s back.
It is clear that the peace officer violated both the 5th & 14th Amendment guarantee to the person, that no person shall be deprived of the right to LIFE, liberty, & property without due process of law, as due process of law demands a hearing before an impartial judge & jury, and there is no mention of that, nor time to conduct a hearing in under a minute.
It is clear that the DA, the Sheriff, and the Mayor are far more concerned about PR & liability than they are about prosecuting a self proclaiming murderer.
It is clear that the system has either, or both, no will, and/or no ability to prosecute one of their own, who by all means is guilty of murder.
It is clear that the Peace Officer will get off, the city, the police department, & the peace officer may get sued and lose, but money will never bring back the murdered victim, nor his carvings.
In a government of law, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
-Justice Louis Brandeis-Olmstead v. US (1928)
You know what kind of investigation I’d love The Stranger to do? Dig through old police records for the last, say, 5 to 10 years, and look for incidents in which officers were physically harmed. Then, report how many of the injuries/fatalities were caused by suspects with knives. I’ve noticed that police departments often say that they have had officers killed by assailants with knives, and as such holding a knife is enough to justify deadly force. But does this pan out in Seattle, or is it just the excuse it sounds like?
“Seattle officers and civilians have had a series of high-profile conflicts that escalated rapidly: …”
What these thugs fail to realize, and the media continues to sell you this bs, is that they are “civilians” too. They are not some special breed or any more special than the average person just because they get to wear a government issued costume. What kind of punk coward shoots someone from 10 feet away when that person isn’t even presenting a threat?
If I were standing “9 to 10” feet away from someone with a knife, no matter what the size was, and that person was not acting in a threating manner, or even looking at me, and I decided to shoot and kill them, I would be facing murder charges. This costumed thug should get the same. Charge his sorry ass with murder and throw him to the prison wolves where he belongs. They’ll love his little 27 year old former cop ass in prison.
Four years ago I sat with John Williams out in front of Rudy’s on Capitol Hill while I was waiting for a hair cut. I had never met him before, I struck up a conversation with him about his woodcarving that he was working on.
He told me about his art, his people, and his life in general. He was a very nice man, and we had a very good conversation, I actually thanked him for telling me his story. I asked him if he would be offended if I gave him unsolicited advice…he said go ahead. I told him that a man such as himself should get the hell out of Seattle, and make his way back to the reservation, or at least back to British Columbia. I told him that the streets of our fair city were too violent for a gentle man such as himself, and maybe life on the reservation had improved.
I told him these things because I thought someone would abuse or kill him because he lived on the street, or appeared to most of the time…and I was right, although I never thought it would be some coward in a uniform. Who shoots a man four times in the back for having a three inch knife…a deaf man…a frail man…seriously, what kind of pussy does that shit? What a fucking disgrace, what a disgusting display. This city is a fucking joke, Seattle is the land of cowards and joke pig wanna be liberals…this town used to be worth a shit, but no more.
I met the man one time, but when I saw the picture in this article, I remembered his face at once. I hope that John Williams is at peace now, chilling with his ancestors. I really want to make anyone that reads this understand how gentle and respectful this individual was when me and my girlfriend just happened to meet him on the street…I thought I would never feel this way, but fuck this stupid fucking shit town, I can’t wait to get the fuck out. Watch out you idiots, the cops might blow you away next for not “following orders”…lawful or not. Citizen review board my ass, this pussy city has no citizens that have the balls to review shit without pissing their panties and letting the cops run rough shod over anyone they please.
Had this man threatened anyone? I have often wondered if I have the right to defend myself if the police were to suddenly jump on me believing I was someone else? Do I have to subject myself to their orders or violence if I am not doing anything wrong? I’m sure that it would be that way in the courts, and I’m sure that it is the common sense thing to do, but isn’t it ethically and morally wrong to subject ourselves to arbitrary violence and search and seizure from authority? Isn’t that in the Constitution? Oh yeah:
Amendment 4 – Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Is the guy ex military? (Iraq/Afghanistan?)
“an officer punching a 17-year-old girl in the face after a routine jaywalking stop in June”
Routine disingenuous Stranger crap.
This is a flat out murder. This cop should be immediately suspended without pay and tried for first degree murder. You can shoot someone in the leg once and disable them, four times is murder my friends. That cop should be in prison.
Elmvale Ontario Canada, 2009. Mildly retarded Doug Minty murdered.
He was shot by a lone ontario provincial police officer after being accused of threatening a door to door salesman.
Shot at seven times, hit five at close range for refusing to drop the butter knife he allegedly carried.
Would it be so wrong for the pigs to back up and wait it out once in a while?
Doug Minty was a big gentle dummy. He must have looked like satan with that butter knife in his hand though.
The cop got off due to “no criminal intent”. Don’t try that defence yourself, only works for the bacon!
How many people attending the vigil ignored him on a daily basis while he was alive? Seattle needs to wake up and show daily concern for our less fortunate instead of engaging in armchair activism for only high profile incidents.
Cops=cowardly pussy gangbangers in blue. Kill every cop in amerika! No seriously kill em all. They do NOTHING for you. Fuckin army of the rich.
@28 “Insane homeless people” Can you listen to yourself? Are you so full of fear that you jump on the “mob” bandwagon of judgement and prosecution? Do you ever question authority; or will you quietly lay down on the ground under the boots of SPD pigs when they come to shoot yer ass for brandishing a nail file? John was a wood carver with a LEGAL knife in hand; this is clearly a case of SPD OVER REACTION; testosterone pumped little boys with erection problems. Fuck em all. Yeah, cops suck.
@13, Thanks. I was told by his cousin he was Nuu-chah-nulth, no mention of Ditidaht, and other news outlets have reported him as being from both. We’re updating the article to mention both.
Ken Mehlman:
Do you really want to live in a city, or country, where insane police officers brandish sidearms and use them against people who have do nothing wrong, nothing illegal, and nothing unlawful, whose only offense is to not immediately defer to what is as a matter of law and fact an illegal & unlawful order, and the good, or unfortunate citizens, who reside there do do anything about it?
I do know, though I am not from Seattle, but I live in America. I have served in the Armed Forces for over 10.5 years, and am currently a member of my state’s national guard. I have served with people who have fought & died to ensure freedom and the rule of law remains in this country.
For someone to bow down & defer to fear and declare a fealty to unlawful & illegal authority exercised to what amounts to an execution is a slap unto the face of every service member that has ever served. It is your right to express these views. It is your right to hold these beliefs. It is my right to tell you people like you make me sick and regret the service I have given to try to protect freedom, while you ask for arbitrary authority exercised without hindrance of the rule of law, checks & balances,administrative appeal, 3rd party oversight-review, etc…
@28 In Portland there is a man who rides a bike with a samurai sword strapped to his back.
You should probably just stay in your safe little white, upper middle class town. It’s too dangerous for you out here.
Dontcha love when some dumb conservative sonofabitch feels like he wants to educate people to his way of thinking, and accomplishes nothing but making himself look like an ass?
Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you, #1.
As sad as it is Police chief Diaz will surely cover up this murder and slap the cop on the wrist. I dont give a f*ck who you are if you got a loaded glock and some one has a small knife 10 ft away, you are in complete control of the situation and are not in harms way…… He did not need to be killed, he did not need to be shot 4 times center mass, this is murder, if it was rich white Bellevue kid there would be action taken already. RIP totem guy, i used to walk by you all the time on my commute to work.
As sad as it is Police chief Diaz will surely cover up this murder and slap the cop on the wrist. I dont give a f*ck who you are if you got a loaded glock and some one has a small knife 10 ft away, you are in complete control of the situation and are not in harms way…… He did not need to be killed, he did not need to be shot 4 times center mass, this is murder, if it was rich white Bellevue kid there would be action taken already. RIP totem guy, i used to walk by you all the time on my commute to work.
What is an ‘unregistered comment’?
This is too sad. I met John while working in Pioneer Square about 10 years ago. He was gentle and sweet and sad. Any cop working that neighborhood should have known he was a wood carver. Christ. John deserved better than he got in life and now this.
Has anyone figured out what “horn” means yet? Urban Dictionary is not being particularly illuminating.
It’d be pretty nice if everyone could walk down the street even on a bad day without worrying about whether they’d have to react within three seconds to a cop thinking they look suspicious.
I don’t live in Seattle. I have spent a fair amount of time there, as my daughter lives in Belltown. I have been to the market a hand full of times over the last year. I knew who Mr Williams was and walked past him every time I visited the Pike Place Market and every single time I thought to myself that the next time I was there, walking by the park bench next to Cutters, I wanted to buy one of John Williams carvings, each time, unfortunately I wasn’t carrying any cash. Now I will never get that chance, thanks to a trigger happy rookie SPD officer. My question is this: If I didn’t live in Seattle, visiting occasionally, and I knew who Mr. Williams was, and that he was a Native American wood carver, how is it that a Seattle police officer who worked those streets DAILY for the last TWO YEARS, did not (or so he claims) know of this man? In my opinion, and we all have a right to our own, the officer is full of crap and trying to defend his ILLEGAL actions!
Btw, I never in a million years thought I would feel the need to tell one of my children to be careful of the POLICE! It sickens me to think she could be shot for carrying a pocket knife! I carry one, it is a tool. I use it for cleaning my fingernails, removing slivers, opening packages, etc.
In addition, ANY police officer would know a three inch folding blade if they saw one! They are suppose to be trained in weapons, no? Hey, maybe the cop was a tree hugger and didn’t want Mr. Williams to hurt the poor defenseless chunk of wood he held in his other hand…
@1 fuck you. yes they are superior to you.
The culture starts at the top. Get rid of Diaz, or guarantee he gets rid of Birt and let’s every officer know that open season is closed.
Trigger happy idiots shouldn’t be able to carry a loaded weapon, I agree with jake legend. RIP mr williams.
Im from washington state, grew up here joined the army and got stationed in fort lewis, my family and I have toured seattle (husbands from the east coast) a total of 6 times in 3 years and could point mr williams out in a second. We have talked to him about his work the past 2 visits.
I think its crap how double standards exist expecially with people who have the upper hand. (See it in the army allllll the time)
Regarding the cop who was given a free pass after stomping a citizens head while shouting racial epithets:
Don’t mess around. Go directly to the FBI,
and file a federal civil rights complaint. (By the way, these laws are to protect ALL citizens,
not just persons of color) If your local cops insist on lying, let them do it under oath to the FBI.
Unlawful police violence must not be tolerated.
Cops want to go home at the end of the day too. Half deaf? Take your headphones off of your good ear. Carrying a knife? Put it down. Why is this so difficult for people to understand? I’m not an authoritarian, and I’m not trying to say that the cops are never wrong, but we clearly have another situation where an individual failed to exercise common sense while interacting with the police. That’s called natural selection.
Natural selection sounds terribly suspiciously Nazi, Nutxag (cool handle, man).
Ten feet away. A legal blade. A block of wood. A frail man. Four (or more?) bullets.
Pick a history book, dog. Read any narrative of oppression. You won’t even need to bother with the astute (and not so) comments on a Stranger article.
He was shot 4 times? Are you kidding me? That my friends, was an assasination.
Natural selection sounds terribly suspiciously Nazi, Nutxag (cool handle, man).
Ten feet away. A legal blade. A block of wood. A frail man. Four (or more?) bullets.
Pick a history book, dog. Read any narrative of oppression. You won’t even need to bother with the astute (and not so) comments on a Stranger article.
liberals seattle assholes figure you would comment on this go live your safe little lives and comment on grown up issues like you do you fucks cant even drive let alone comment on a job as tuff as being a police officer serve your espressos to me and shut the fuck up
@reality2check grown up issues? A man dying cause of a trigger happy asshole to me my friend is an “grown up issue” a slap on the fuckin hand for a “trained seattle police officer”
As tough as bein a police officer? Try deploying to afghanistan for a yr away from ur family and friends then talk about tough.
48 – I bet “liberal seattle assholes” know about all that dirty hippy shit: like run-on sentences and punctuation.
No one is winning this. The cop was a scared kid, with only two years experience. I think the SPD force is nervous after the recent cop killings.
Police are trained to shoot in groupings – 3 or 4 shots quickly triggered – then to evaluate. If the officer was jumpy and scared, he would have instinctively used the procedure he was trained to apply. And no one ever shoots to wound – its too easy to miss. Police are trained to aim for the center of mass – the chest.
I don’t think Mr William needed to be shot – I think the cop was too nervous and scared to think straight. I wonder how much time do new cops spend riding with a senior officer before going out solo? Perhaps new cops need more time under supervision, so that they can approach incidences like this one with more poise, calm, and professionalism.