Justified Pregnant Woman Seattle Police Shooting: Investigation

Seattle — Two Seattles inquest on Wednesday Discovered by the Jury Trial. Police officers justified in 2017 by deadly shooting a black mother of four pregnant children who were mentally unstable in her apartment when she threatened them with a knife. it was done. White police officers Jason Anderson and Stephen McNew have determined that there is no reasonable alternative to using deadly forces. The findings caused an outburst of anger from Charina Lyles' father, who shouted blasphemous words and shouted, "You killed my daughter!"

Police officers talk calmly with Lyles, who talked about threatening other police officers with scissors two weeks ago and turning them into wolves, calling for reports of alleged robbers. I testified that I was there. knife.

When the officer pulled the weapon, Lyles shouted, "Do it!" And they cursed me. Her policemen repeatedly shouted at her to return before firing and hit her seven times. The jury decided that even if the policeman had a taser gun, she would have advanced them in a small area of ​​the apartment, so it would not have been an effective or appropriate option, the Seattle Times reports. rice field.

When she died, a crying baby crawled up over her and a boy came out of the bedroom, weeping, "You are my mother. I shot, "said the policeman. I remembered it with emotional testimony.

Lyles was 15 weeks pregnant.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said he would consider the evidence presented in the inquest and the findings in deciding whether to prosecute police officers.

"The death of Charina Lyles is a tragedy," Sutterberg said. "The details of the case shared in the inquest are heartbreaking."

Her death unleashed a storm of public protests, unnecessary police violence and institutional racial discrimination by law enforcement agencies. Has been thwarted by supporters of police reform as showing.

Her family was trained by police to deal with people showing signs of mental illness and other behavioral crises to conquer her. I questioned why I didn't use the non-lethal method. Anderson didn't have a Taser gun — the battery was dead — and he was later suspended for two days without payment to violate department policy.

Seattle Police Department detective Karen Koehler, who was asked by a family lawyer to help review the shooting, deals with Lyles, except that police officers keep up with Lyles. He admitted that he hadn't made a plan.

Last year, the family settled a civil lawsuit against officers and the Seattle Police Department for $ 3.5 million.

The cause of death hearing began after years of delay caused by a revision of the coroner's cause of death hearing process. It included a six-day testimony. The jury was asked to consider Lyles' death in the light of the 2017 Police Deadly Forces Act. After the prosecutor and the legislator made a conclusion, it was virtually impossible to meet the criteria for prosecuting police officers for murder.

The inquest jury can determine if a law enforcement agency violates policy or may violate criminal law. However, the decision to prosecute police officers is made by the King County prosecutor.