Posted at 2:11 p.m. and updated with better sound: The first version of the video we posted included a cacophony from talk radio (presumably playing inside the patrol car) in the left channel. We’ve removed the left audio channel in the video below so you can hear Officer Birk’s mic much more clearly as he gives commands to Williams and recounts the events to officers afterward.
Here’s the just-released, 17-minute video taken from the dashboard camera of Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk’s patrol car before, during, and after he fatally shot John T. Williams:
Just after 1:00 minute, the video shows Williams shuffling across the street—carrying a board and minding his own business—in front of Birk’s squad car. Birk jumps out and yells, “Hey, put the knife down.” Then Birk follows Williams out of the frame. After two more commands (audible while the men are off screen) there are shots fired that killed Williams. A woman is also shown crossing the street who appears to witness the whole thing from maybe 20 feet away.
After 2:00, Officer Birk says, “Ma’am, he had a knife and he wouldn’t drop it.”
At 2:30, backup cars arrive.
At about 3:00, a voice (probably Birk’s) says, “Yeah, I am okay. He had the knife open.” (The investigation has since said that police found the knife closed.)
At 5:10, another officer can be heard telling Birk, “You did the right thing. Hang in there, Ian.”
Seattleblues, please spare us the anti-librul whining.
If the same video surfaced, but Ian Burk had not been a police officer, you can bet your ass he’d have been charged with murder by now. The fact that he hasn’t, coupled with the popular opinion that police officers are almost never punished in any meaningful way for abusing their positions of authority, makes some of us feel a bit frustrated by the fact that this piece of shit — best we can tell from a revealing bit of audio prefaced by very clear video — is on paid vacation right now and not sobbing in a jail cell, awaiting his day in court, wishing he could afford bail.
I’m with Fnarf on this one:
@78:
@88:
SPOG’s support of the worst SPD has to offer puts us all in danger.
To clarify, I agree with Fnarf’s statements except for the part about this not being Birk’s fault. I don’t care how much hyper-aggressive motherfucking macho cop culture surrounds someone, stopping to hassle a stumbling old drunk with a pocket knife, warning him to put down his knife, then waiting FIVE SECONDS before shooting him dead is not acceptable. If Birk doesn’t know that, then he is truly a psychopath and should be treated as such.
Diaz needs to shake things up and root out the rest of the psychopaths on the force. Apologies to the 90+% who are good people, but I take their silence as acceptance. Speak up about the “bad apples” or expect to be treated like you support them, officers.
Everyone says “I saw a regular guy carving wood, minding his own business”.
Um, then how can they argue the knife was in the closed position and Mr Friendly Woodcarver (who has had more contacts with police than most people on this comment board) didn’t hear or respond to the officer?
If he was carving with a closed knife, that boy ain’t right.
And, for everyone else, I recommend you take a Fire Arm Training Simulator Course. You would realize that 5 second is plenty of time in the danger zone with an attacker. You can google firearm training simulator, or take Seattle or Redmond’s Citizens Police Acadamy.
@153: Um, seems he closed it between being seen with it open and being shot with it closed. And everyone who watched the video says, “I saw a guy walking across the street in the crosswalk before a cop pulled up, stopped in the intersection, got out of the car, followed the man just outside of the view of the camera, told the man to drop the knife a couple times, then shot him dead.”
That was MURDER… I dont care how you look at it.
9 Seconds elapsed from between the time the officer got out the car, and fired 3 shots. I wish I could see a video of what took place but either way have you ever heard of dont bring a knife to a gun fight… theres a reason people say that… This is just straight MURDER…
Here is a second thought, just be very careful when you walk the streets of Seattle…. Very Careful. I have a buddy who is a LAPD Police office and I just talked to him (He Called Just By Chance After I Got Done Watching This Video) I told him what I just watched and forwarded him the link, before he even watched it he told me in his Unit they have a joke, its called “Pulling A SPD”… He is from Seattle originally and the joke is aimed at him and his counter parts will say “Hey XXXXX, you gonna pull a SPD today” or in other words kill a citizen. He told me after he watched the video and we were on the phone, to be very careful because this could easily happen again and he doesnt want to see me get shot over having a cell phone, pocket knife or in my case a micro phone or something in my hand and that he wants to see me alive when he comes home for the holiday. What does that say about the SPD?
“Pulled an SPD today” … Well as long as the officer is SAFE that is all that matters …
Washington State has a BIG PROBLEM! After my 19 year old brother died in custody … we protested … After burrying him, I was pulled over, my truck towed, left on the side of the street, with no radar cert to prove speeding, (oh and my beat up truck won’t even go 70). Also same officer pulled over another sibling leaving the same protest also for speeding … kinda makes you go HUM … that doesn’t sound right!
Local paper claimed he was a RAPIST so no one cared … Media would not cover it either!!
Hope your children and family members are safe from the SPD!! Denial Kills!!
Do not be afraid of the SPD. Predators are stimulated by fear. We the people have the numbers. Do not fall to their lows and use senseless violence. Violence is wrong. Instead, peacefully watch, observe and report. Look after your friends, family and yourself. If you see an officer, observe what they do. Use your cameras, use your video recorders use your memory use your voices. Do not be a slave to fear. Observe. SPD, we the people are watching you now even more closely than ever. Please be good.
“be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”
@99, “I could have sworn I grew up in a country where a man was innocent until proven guilty.” Cry me a river.
This coming from the person who wants to try and convict Bradley Manning of treason before he’s had his due process.
@131
Also, seattleblues, as a person on the receiving end of that phrase: fuck you, my fiend.
I think because police go through so much training to prepare for a senario like this that they should be held more accountable than a normal citizen that decides to shoot someone. They are supposed to be the ones trained to handle this thing. I actually had respect for the spd (not capitalized anymore) but that is gone now. Wow im disgusted, i kinda want to start flipping them off in protest and that isn’t illegal, but they might just decide to tell me to put my finger down and shoot me.
to 158 you are not alone. the corprate media has worked hand and hand with the police to vilify those who they hurt to get the public on their side and torment the relitives of their victims.
comenter 37. “get them shit stained indians off our street” well excuse me . this is out land, you need to take your wormy dog white ass back to europe.
Are you that murders’s moma or something? you have the same attitude your stinking deaise machine ancestors did when the genocidal savages landed on our shores.
thank God that some of your rece have risen above this sentiment and learned to respect somthing besides their delutions of superiorit and care about their fellow human beings, . why dont you go dig up your grandmothers and rob some graves so you can chew the bones of your own ancesters and leave us go about living. go away get out you have no right to be here in the first place remember that you stupid dog
this is going on all over the country and has been for centuries. only this is the first time it has been made this public. we have been used too many times for tatget pratice for bigots. and that was just what John Willans was a target. this was just another HATE CRIME THAT WILL BE WHITE WASHED.
So many things can be said about this incident but as a profoundly deaf (and partly sighted) person I am going to focus on that aspect as it chills me to the bone. The murder victim’s perception of the world around him as a hearing impaired person is not a matter of just not hearing sound, it is that sounds as we experience them are so very different, often coming in as a jumbled confusing mess that threatens to overload us. As a result we have to tune much of what we experience out in order to just protect out sanity. Even if the poor man was just mildly hearing impaired the chances are that amongst the background clatter of the street he would have stood little chance of hearing his murderer shouting at him, no chance at all if that swine was behind him. I gather that there was less than seven seconds between the murderer first shouting at and them firing his automatic pistol at a man with a small 7cm blade. Seven seconds !
I am young, skilled lip and body reader and mentally agile but it would take me at least five seconds to even work out that the cop wanted something of me, but by that time he would have already made his decision to murder me. Personally I think that cop had made his decision to take that poor mans life as he got out of his car. He saw a man who did not match his ideal of a “good citizen” and he saw the carvers knife as a challenge to authority and that was all that was needed.
The other disturbing aspect was the witnessed reactions of his police colleagues. They assumed that their brother in blue had “done the right thing”, no professional detachment there at all. Just because he wears the same uniform and locker room does not mean that all he does should not be questioned thoroughly. Shame on them all.
Look at all those cop cars, pointed towards the murder scene. Why haven’t they released THOSE dashcam vids??? I don’t relish the fact to see Mr. Williams’ dead body, but I’d like to see what they were doing throughout this vid that we can only hear, not see.
Also, who and WHERE is this young lady that witnessed this act? I certainly understand how she is shook up and scared and maybe laying low, but she really needs (needed?) to step forward with her version of the events, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, is she ok? If I were her I would be TERRIFIED to be on SPD radar in this context.
Lots of rumors swirling, but Mr. Williams WAS known to SPD, and I wonder if Officer Birk had previous contact with him and when he saw him crossing the street, took that opportunity to settle some kind of score?
We all know now that Officer Birk will not be brought to justice for this vile act, and he has resigned. So, what does that mean? He got away with murder (manslaughter?), with only losing his job/career as a consequence??!!! (Small price to pay.) He deserves to stand trial and do time.
People, watch your backs, ESPECIALLY if you are of color. SPD is gunnin’ for you. And remember to vote responsibly.
RIP Mr. John. T. Williams
xxxx
PS – To the Williams family, take them and break them ($$$$$$$$$$$)
Idiots…all of you. I heard, “Drop the knife 3 times.”
1) Doesn’t matter if the Williams was widdling, don’t hold a knife when contacted by the police.
If he was a habitual drunk, he probably didn’t respond in an appropriate manner.
2) The so called “witness” was not looking when the shooting began.
3) Several reports state at least one of the bullets entered Williams when the shooting began. People turn away when they are being shot.
4) The knife was found closed, I’ve seen cops shoot people who drop the gun, close the knife or throw the pipe away from themselves after they have been shot, not before.
5)You all decided the cop was a murderer when you read the headline.
Shocking and disgusting murder. I can’t believe they aren’t prosecuting him.
Say what you want about him, Seattleblues is substantially more articulate and well reasoned than all of his critics combined. That said, it hurts me all the more deeply to cast my lot with the ostensible liberals on this one. When otherwise good cops close ranks around their worst, as they almost always do, the line between good cop and bad cop goes away. Cronyism corrupts. I want desperately to believe that cops are weeding out their sadists, racists and misanthropes, but I’m continually reminded that it’s a long, slow and uphill process. Hampered start to finish by police unions, peer pressure, and misguided loyalties. I know in my bones that if any cop was ever to shoot me, that it would be:
a. a wrongful shooting
b. covered up and lied about by other cops
In response to the guy who said that it’s a lot worse in Europe, I can only wholeheartedly agree. I wasn’t feelin’ too much love from the Gendarmes when I visited Vienna many years ago. Still, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to get better here in the USA regardless. Even in Socialist Utopia, the cops step on your neck with a pretty heavy boot. Think about that, Obama lovers. The object of your worship, the omnipotent state, cannot be at once, both bigger AND kinder.
There are so many things that I admire about this forum. First and foremost, that I may comment on this story and reply to the comments of others. In my home state of New Jersey, to comment publicly on many/most on-line periodicals guarantees a certain and timely death in First Amendment terms. To speak out in defense of the innocent and their plight here often invites angry rhetoric that results in immediate and violent backlash, or worse yet, censorship and the denial of any response in this kind of Public Forum. To you, citizens of Seattle, I congratulate you and pay homage to your bastion of Liberty. I ask only that, if you truly love your freedom and liberty, repent ypur evil ways, beg for Mr. Birk’s forgiveness, pray that you and your loved ones are never the victims of crime and have a nice day…..jerk-offs.
Bubba
This is a straight-up murder, police officer or not.