The Seattle Police Department has been in the news a lot lately and not in a good light, particularly when YouTube is involved. It seems that now-a-days everyone is a videographer with their phones, taking long movies of Seattle police punching jaywalking teenage girls and kicking innocent Latino men in the face. Now, the reports of excessive force have begun to crescendo with the death of a man yesterday afternoon downtown.

The officer was patrolling about 4:15 p.m. when he saw the man at the intersection of Howell Street and Boren Avenue. The man had a piece of wood that he was whittling it with a knife (whittling is carving wood with a sharp instrument).

A Seattle Police Department spokesperson said that the officer found this behavior peculiar so he stopped his car, exited his vehicle, and confronted the man. At that point, the spokesperson said the victim stood up and advanced toward the officer.

The officer gave the whittling man a loud command to stop and drop the knife, but apparently the man kept advancing, at which point the police officer shot him several times at close range.

Investigators did not say how many shots were fired, but witnesses in nearby buildings said that they heard between 3 and 5 shots. When they looked out of the window they told police that the victim definitely looked dead.

A second witness said that several bike officers arrived right away and the man received CPR, but he died at the scene.

There was a third witness who said he was familiar with the shooting victim because he often saw him asking for money on street corners between Stewart Street and Denny. The witness said that he saw the incident from the 1700 block of Boren Avenue (one block away, uphill from the scene). The man said he heard the officer tell the victim to stop, but claimed the man didn’t have a knife at the scene.

A Police spokesman said that the knife was recovered at the scene. The victim’s identity has not been released, pending an autopsy and family notification.

Seattle Municipal Code

This incident and the rules of the Seattle City Municipal Code may clash with a few simple rules. First off, the police didn’t reveal what kind of knife the man was using and how large it was. This is a crucial piece of information because it could be the difference between a justified police action and an excessive use of force resulting in the wrongful death of a man.

Seattle municipal code (SMC 12A.14.010) defines a dangerous knife as “any fixed-blade knife and any other knife having a blade more than three and one-half inches (3 1/2″) in length.”

The code goes on to say that a “’Fixed-blade knife’ means any knife, regardless of blade length, with a blade which is permanently open and does not fold, retract or slide into the handle of the knife.”

Seattle municipal code (SMC 12A.14.080) says that it is illegal to “Carry concealed or unconcealed on his or her person any dangerous knife, or carry concealed on his or her person any deadly weapon other than a firearm.”

Where the behavior of the officer may be justified is in Seattle municipal code (SMC 12A.14.075). That section states, “A person is guilty of unlawful use of weapons to intimidate another if he or she carries, exhibits, displays or draws a dangerous knife, any knife with a blade that is open for use or a deadly weapon other than a firearm in a manner, under circumstances, and at a time and place that either manifests an intent to intimidate another person or warrants alarm for the safety of other persons.”

Washington Wrongful Death Attorneys

The spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department did not elaborate on whether the man, though approaching, was using intimidating or threatening body language or verbal language. Even if the knife was considered above the allowable knife length or was a fixed blade, was the victim wielding it in a threatening manner that constituted the officer to discharge his weapon?

The number of shots fired also comes into question. A single shot is deadly. Several gunshots are certain to kill any normal individual. The actions of the officer from initial reports sounds as if they killed the victim instantly or used a fatal amount of force. Shooting to either wound or stop the individual may have been enough to subdue the individual.

Then there is the question of whether whittling in the city is illegal and why an activity that has been done by humans since the invention of the first stone tool 1.6 million years ago has now all of a sudden become “peculiar” behavior.

There are many questions surrounding this incident. But it may just add another brick to the wall separating the police from the citizenry that, through stories like this that seem to be coming more prevalent in the Seattle area, could result in a backlash that might result in more untimely deaths of police officer like those that died last year at the hands of crazed vigilantes. We can only hope that everyone, citizens and law enforcement, can keep level heads and lines of communication open.

Update 9-1-10: Police confirmed in a press conference on Wednesday that the blade was 3 inches long. They did not specify whether it was a fixed blade knife. They said that the officer shot the victim four times from 9 feet away.

Update 9-1-10: The victim has bee identified as John T. Williams, a member of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth first nations in British Columbia. There was confirmation that the knife he was holding was not a fixed blade knife and that he often used it to carve wood as a regular past time. He was usually homeless and inebriated. He has a series of misdemeanors mostly related to drinking.

If you or someone you know has been personally injured or wrongfully killed by the policies of a municipal, county, state, or corporate policy or action it is imperative that you have legal representation that can protect your best interest and seek the compensation you deserve. Call the wrongful death attorneys at Phillips Webster for a free consultation.

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• Elements of a Wrongful Death Case
• Time Limitations and Restrictions in Wrongful Death Cases
• Financial Entitlements in Wrongful Death Cases