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“That policeman should be charged with murder”

posted by Cydney Gillis on Friday, September 3 at 2:56pm

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John T. Williams was deaf in one ear and couldn’t hear well out of the other, a friend says. He also had ear buds on as he was walking down the street, his brother says. So it’s not clear if he even knew the police officer who told him to “drop the weapon” Monday afternoon was talking to him before he was shot four times in rapid fire.

Witness accounts in the media vary. Some say he turned around. Others say he didn’t. Either way, no one saw him “lunge” at Officer Ian Birk, as the police first claimed. The four shots that killed him were still ringing in the ears of the 300 people who came to a vigil for Williams held outside the Chief Seattle Club last night and at a news conference this morning. It was four too many for a Native American walking down the street with a carving tool in a city named for Chief Sealth, tribal elders and community leaders said, and, this time, the police aren’t going to get away with it.

“I don’t want to hear somewhere down the road that it was OK what happened. It was not OK,” Duwamish Tribal Chair Cecile Hansen said. “This should never have happened.”

“We’re not going to allow this to [be] swept under the rug,” said Randy Lewis of United Indians of All Tribes. Lewis used to run a frame shop on Capitol Hill and gave Williams pieces of wood to carve the small totems that he sold at the Pike Place Market to get by. “I don’t think he had a malicious bone in his body,” Lewis said. “The only thing that could be threatened by John maybe [was] a piece of yellow pine.”

There is growing outrage, Lewis said, about the Seattle Police Department’s use of lethal force—something that he called on the city to re-examine and restrain. Police have been abusing and killing Native Americans for decades, he and others said, and they demanded an end to it, starting with a fair and open inquest into Williams’ killing. The Chief Seattle Club also called on Deputy Chief Nick Metz, in particular, to apologize for the ugly things he said about Williams at a press briefing on Aug. 31.

Williams had been homeless much of his life, but lived most of the past four years at 1811 Eastlake, a building run by the Downtown Emergency Service Center. Williams was on his way from 1811 to the Market when Officer Birk saw him crossing Boren Avenue and decided there was something odd about the 50-year-old and the three-inch carving knife and wood he carried in his hands. So he got out of his car and killed him. The next day, Metz tried to justify the shooting by characterizing Williams to reporters as a criminal and troublemaker, when Williams’ greatest “crime,” by all accounts, was extreme poverty and alcohol addiction.

“He was deaf in one ear and half deaf in the other. He was almost blind [and] he could hardly walk” due to arthritis, said Alexis Jackson, a 74-year-old elder and friend of Williams’ who rose to speak at today’s news conference and said he’d been beaten many times by Seattle police over the years. “That policeman,” Jackson said, “should be charged with murder.”

Comments

Great-keep up the heat…

Michael Barrett Miller | submitted on 09/04/2010, 3:05pm

Thank you.

Janet Detwiler | submitted on 09/05/2010, 9:24am

Didn’t the officer of law and justice have a taser of pepper spray, did he have a partner? Why didn’t he use other avenues other than a gun? Did Mr. Williams respond verbally? Is it illegal to carry a legal sized knife and a piece of carving wood in Seatle? Why was he shot four times, is that mandatory in training, to ensure the suspect is quite dead and quiet? Are the police that afraid of 1st Nations aboriginal people or is it brutal racism?

Richard Cochrane | submitted on 09/05/2010, 11:48am

Recently a CBC news report states that Mr. Williams was carrying a 7.5cm (less than 3 inch) pocket knife. This is not defined as a dangerous knife.

According to the City of Seattle website, it is unlawful to carry a dangerous knife which is defined as any fixed-blade knife and any other knife having a blade measuring more than 3 1/2 inches in length. King County in Washington is a county seat in Seattle, the state’s largest city.

References:
City of Seattle - City Clerk’s Online Information: Seattle Municipal Code - Chapter 12A.14 Weapons Control

Hearst Seattle Media: Is There a Legal Size Limit for Concealed Knives?

Knife Expert: Revised Code of Washington (RCW) - Dangerous Weapons

City of Seattle - City Clerk’s Online Information: Seattle Municipal Code - SMC 12A.14.080 - Unlawful Use of Weapons

Read more: What is the legal knife length to carry on person in king county, washington? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.co.uk/q_view/2211819#ixzz0ygTOWQwA

Richard Cochrane | submitted on 09/05/2010, 12:45pm

Recently a CBC news report states that Mr. Williams was carrying a 7.5cm (less than 3 inch) knife. This is not defined as a dangerous knife and was not unlawfull.

References:
City of Seattle - City Clerk’s Online Information: Seattle Municipal Code - Chapter 12A.14 Weapons Control

Hearst Seattle Media: Is There a Legal Size Limit for Concealed Knives?

Knife Expert: Revised Code of Washington (RCW) - Dangerous Weapons

City of Seattle - City Clerk’s Online Information: Seattle Municipal Code - SMC 12A.14.080 - Unlawful Use of Weapons

Richard Cochrane | submitted on 09/05/2010, 12:49pm

full download rapidshare | submitted on 09/06/2010, 10:06am

A few days ago I found a video of John’s brother talking at the news conference. But now it seems to have disappeared. It was part of a larger news article posted at the top. Do you know where I might find it again?
Thank you so much.

A friend | submitted on 09/06/2010, 11:38am

Thank you Cydney for your excellent reporting on this story. I agree with the comment above that this was plain murder. Why aren’t we hearing that the police officer is at least fired?

Susan Platt | submitted on 09/20/2010, 1:54pm

You peeps are lame.

LA's Jack Granite | submitted on 09/28/2010, 6:24pm

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