Seattle police shot and killed a mother of four inside her apartment in the presence of her young children after she called law enforcement to report a burglary.
The death of 30-year-old Charleena Lyles, who police say was carrying a knife, has sparked outrage across the country, with critics decrying the shooting as another example of US law enforcement using excessive force against black Americans.
Two officers fired at Lyles shortly after arriving to investigate a burglary on Sunday morning, and the mother was pronounced dead before she could be taken to a hospital, according to police. Law enforcement on Monday released a four-minute audio recording of the fatal encounter, which captures an officer saying, “We need help” and “Get back! Get back!” before they fired a stream of bullets.
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Lyles’ relatives said she suffered from mental health challenges. The officers who fired at Lyles are now on paid administrative leave, which is standard protocol in a shooting.
It’s unclear how the burglary investigation escalated to a fatal shooting. Although the police department would typically only send one officer to investigate a burglary, police said that two officers investigated in this case “due to information pertaining to this address that presented an increased risk to officers”.
In the police recording, which came from the officers’ dashcam video systems, one officer implied that he is familiar with the home, saying, “Is this the one with the three kids?” The officers also briefly mentioned possible mental health issues.
The audio suggests that police fired their weapons very soon after first encountering Lyles. One officer asked about an Xbox being taken and whether the door had been unlocked before the police start shouting at the woman to get back. About 15 seconds after that first command, officers started firing.
“What is the reason to use such lethal force?” said Erneshia Jack, a 23-year-old cousin of Lyles. “There are many ways to subdue someone without shooting them. She’s not big. She’s not intimidating … She called you, and you went to her house and killed her.”
Studies have repeatedly suggested that people with mental illnesses and disabilities are killed by police killed by police at disproportionately high rates. One report suggested that the risk of being killed by police is 16 times greater for individuals with untreated mental illness compared to other civilians. Police also kill African Americans at rates significantly higher than the rest of the population. The officers who shot Lyles are white.
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Lyles lived at a complex of apartments for formerly homeless people, called the Brettler Family Place, according to the Seattle Times. Roughly 400 people live in the apartments and about half of the residents are children.
Mike Buchman, spokesman for Solid Ground, the not-for-profit that operates the complex, told the Guardian that residents and staff were shaken by the shooting.
“It’s horrible. Regardless of what might have been going on with her and the call to police, it should not have ended this way. We all feel that deeply,” he said, adding, “This isn’t an incident in isolation ... The Seattle community has had a lot of scrutiny about police response in communities of color” (Levin “Woman” 1-2, 4).
Charleena Lyles … was shot seven times, including twice in the back, according to an autopsy released on Wednesday.
The medical examiner’s report … classified the death as a homicide and noted that the bullets cut through her uterus and hit her fetus, estimated to be 14 to 15 weeks old.
Lyles’ death sparked national outrage and reignited debates about law enforcement’s disproportionate killing of African Americans and officers’ treatment of people with mental illness.
The two police officers have claimed that Lyles was holding a knife when they killed her on 18 June, but her family has questioned law enforcement’s narrative and justification for using deadly force, noting that she was 100lb, 5ft 3in and not a threatening person.
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“Did they shoot her as she fell to the ground? Was she running away?” said Katrina Johnson, Lyles’ cousin, in an interview on Wednesday. “How did she get shot in the back? I still don’t know that and understand that, but any which way, it was excessive force. Seven times for her little pregnant 100lb self was out of control.”
The 14-page King County medical examiner’s office report, released by a family attorney and published by the Seattle Times, raises fresh questions about why the officers, Jason Anderson and Steven McNew, used lethal force and fired a round of bullets at the woman at close range.
The officers had arrived at Lyles’ apartment door less than an hour after Lyles dialed 911 to report a burglary, when she discovered her Xbox was missing. After roughly two minutes and 30 seconds, police fired at her from about five feet away as her one-year-old and four-year-old children crawled nearby, police records revealed. Her 11-year-old son was in another room during the shooting.
It’s unclear how the encounter escalated, with police audio recordings capturing a conversation that was initially polite and cordial. In department interviews, the officers claimed that at some point she had a knife on her and that they feared for their safety. The officers didn’t have Tasers on them, even though one of them was supposed to be carrying one. [That officer explained later that the taser’s battery was dead and he had not replaced it]
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One of the bullets entered her back near her spine and “extensively” lacerated her lungs, ribs and inferior vena cava, which carries blood to the heart, the report said. She was hit on the right and left sides of her back, and two of the bullets hit her uterus.
“How can someone be shot in the back if they are coming at you with knives?” said André Taylor, a local police reform activist assisting the Lyles family.
The toxicology report also found no drugs or alcohol in Lyles’ system when she was killed, the Seattle Times reported. An investigation into the shooting is continuing. Seattle police declined to comment on the autopsy.
Her father, Charles Lyles, told the paper that it was painful to learn of how her unborn child died in the shooting: “Hearing the details of the shooting just makes me feel more empty. I lost my daughter and my next grandson. I just don’t have the words.”
Lyles’ relatives spoke at length with the Guardian in July about police harassment and mistreatment of black communities, despite Seattle officials’ claims that it is one of the most progressive cities in the country for modern policing. Weeks before her death, Lyles had called police to report a domestic disturbance, and instead of being treated as a victim, she was arrested and jailed (Levin “Police” 1-3).
Charleena Lyles, 30, known by her loved ones as Leena, was about 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed. The day after the funeral, her siblings and cousins briefly laughed through their grief at the absurdity of two policemen feeling physically endangered by her.
She was feisty and outspoken, they said, but at 5ft 3in and 100lbs, she was not intimidating or menacing – and certainly not some kind of skilled knife-thrower as police seemed to fear.
“She’s not a threatening person at all,” said Monika Williams, her 37-year-old sister. “She was just one of those people who lit up the room.”
Her relatives said she was known as one of the most energetic people in the family and loved dancing, styling her cousins’ hair and writing poetry about her loved ones. Above all, they said, she was dedicated to her four children.
“I truly admired her as a mother and I just admired her drive,” said Shaneé Isabell, a cousin who grew up alongside her. “She was very courageous and dependable, and she was very loyal.”
Seattle officers saw something very different in Lyles. The day of her death was not the first time she had called police for help and was instead treated like a suspect.
On 5 June, Lyles called police after an ex-boyfriend showed up to her apartment unannounced, according to her family. Officers arrived to investigate a “physical domestic disturbance”, but instead of approaching her like a potential domestic violence victim, the police quickly had their service pistols drawn, records show. They felt threatened, the officers later said, because Lyles was holding a pair of scissors.
They arrested her for “harassment”, alleging she “repeatedly used words and actions to create a substantial risk of assault”.
A police report on that day said that Lyles seemed “out of touch with reality” and had made statements about police being the devil. But any struggle Lyles was having with her mental health was only further exacerbated by spending the next eight days behind bars, away from her children, her family said.
Four days after her release, on 18 June, two different officers prepared to investigate her burglary call, reviewing Lyles’s previous incident which noted that they should approach her with caution.
“She started talking all crazy,” officer Jason Anderson told the other officer, Steven McNew, according to released audio recordings. “This gal, she was the one making all these weird statements.”
When they arrived at her door, Lyles answered a few questions and the officers, in later interviews with investigators, said that everything seemed normal to them, though they both said they noticed her home was messy.
Within a few minutes, they realized she had a knife in her hand, and said in their official account that they feared she could try and stab them or throw it at them. McNew, 6ft 2in and 250lbs, later noted that he is “a little larger” than Lyles, but said he feared for his life nonetheless.
Anderson and McNew screamed at her to get back, and at one point she complied. They briefly discussed tasering her, but they didn’t have one on them. Within about 12 seconds of them noticing the knife, they both fired multiple rounds at her.
Neither officer ever ordered her to drop the knife.
Deep distrust of police is embedded in the family, said Williams, Lyles’s sister. “I can honestly say I would fear the police, even before this, more than I would fear a gang member. At least a gang member, you’d have to do something to them for them to want to do something to you.”
When Williams’s four-year-old daughter sees an officer, she always asks: “Are you going to shoot my dad?”
Lyles’s relatives all had stories – unjustified tickets, unwarranted stops, threatening physical contact.
Nakeya Isabell, Lyles’s cousin, said this was standard police behavior in Seattle’s African American communities: “They train your mind to fear people, specifically black people.”
“It’s a system founded on racism ... All the training is to kill.”
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The US Department of Justice (DoJ) validated these kinds of complaints in 2011 when it concluded that the Seattle police department was engaged in an unconstitutional pattern of excessive use of force. The investigation originated with the 2010 police killing of a First Nations woodcarver who had trouble hearing and was ordered to drop his knife while walking down the street.
The DoJ inquiry resulted in a consent decree that required the agency to make significant reforms under the watch of a federal monitor.
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Seattle is proud of the progress it has made, Brian Maxey, chief operating officer, said in an interview at police headquarters. From 2011 to 2016, the department’s use of force has dropped 60%, and last year, out of 9,300 cases of encountering people in crisis, officers applied force only 1.6% of the time.
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… the officers are very unlikely to face any criminal consequences in Washington, which is by some measures the hardest place in America to hold police accountable.
In 1986, the state passed legislation saying officers cannot face prosecution for killing someone in the line of duty unless they acted with “malice” and “evil intent”.
The law is the most restrictive in the US, where it is generally very difficult to convict officers who kill, since they can broadly cite self defense. Despite video evidence, officers across the country have avoided criminal consequences in most high profile killings in recent years, including the deaths of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling and Tamir Rice.
In Washington, police are never convicted. Out of 213 police killings in a 10-year-period, only one officer was even charged, according to a Seattle Times investigation.
“It’s the worst law in the nation,” said André Taylor, a police reform activist whose brother was killed by police last year. “It can embolden officers. They feel they have this special immunity. They don’t want to be responsible or accountable to nobody” (Levin “Insists” 1-4).
One of the two officers who killed Charleena Lyles, the pregnant woman gunned down in her own apartment last year, lied about his justification for shooting her, according to a court document filed Monday, on the one-year anniversary of her death.
Jason Anderson claimed in several interviews since the June 18, 2017 shooting that his back faced the closed front door inside Lyles' apartment when he fired at her as she allegedly advanced at officers with knives.
However, Karen Koehler and Edward Moore, the attorneys for Lyles' estate, say that surveillance footage from the apartment building shows that Anderson shot at Lyles through an open doorway.
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The detail of the reportedly closed door was given as a reason that Anderson felt trapped as Lyles advanced on him and Officer Steven McNew, court records say.
But, when the audio recording of the officers' response is synchronized with the apartment video footage, they "depict Officer Anderson in the open doorway of the apartment and the hallway at the only time that gunshots can be heard," according to an expert who analyzed the footage.
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Anderson's account informed the Force Investigation Team (FIT) and the Force Review Board's (FRB) accounts of the incident, leading to the Seattle Police Department’s conclusion that Anderson and NcNew followed agency policy in the shooting.
FIT accepted Anderson's contention that he had no choice but to shoot Lyles because he could not shield himself, given his back was against a closed door, and the small apartment didn't allow him to create more distance between himself and Lyles, according to the Monday court filing.
The officers fired seven times at 30-year-old Lyles -- four times in the back -- within about 4 feet in front of three of her children. Her baby boy crawled on top of her body after she fell to the floor.
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… "There was no time. We didn't have any shielding and we didn't have distance between us. There was ... literally feet between us."
He [Anderson] claimed in his deposition that he only opened the door after Lyles was on the ground (Burton 2-4).
A King County judge has dismissed negligence claims brought against two Seattle police officers who fatally shot 30-year-old Charleena Lyles in 2017.
The claims were part of a wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit brought against both the officers as well as the city of Seattle.
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On January 4, King County Judge Julie Spector granted officers Jason Anderson and Steven McNew's motion for summary judgement. The motion argued that the officers were not legally liable for the negligent infliction of emotional distress because Lyles was committing multiple felonies while she was shot.
Lyles' relatives, however, say she was mentally ill and believe the officers could have deescalated the situation without killing her (KUOW 1).
On June 18, close to the three-year anniversary of her death, Lyles’ family gathered on a soundstage in Magnuson Park, backed by a huge image of Lyles, and told the hundreds of people present to turn and look at a building across the street.
“See that building right behind us? That’s where they took her out,” said Lyles’ second cousin, Shaenae Isabell. “So, we’re going to let them know we’re here today, right?”
Isabell called out, “Say her name!”
“Charleena Lyles!” the crowd boomed back, their voices reaching across the field, past the road to the building Lyles called home. There’s little chance someone inside wouldn’t have heard it.
But reliving Lyles’ death wasn’t what the family had come for. They came to reclaim the narrative built by incomplete media characterizations about her life, to build one of their own and to call for justice.
They were not alone.
The family members of 19 different people killed during encounters with the police across the country joined them. The Forced Trajectory Project, as they’re known, had traveled from their respective home towns with the stories of their loved ones. They came to support the Lyles family, as many of them had been supported in their time of grief.
Because, as the Forced Trajectory Project says, “families are the frontlines.”
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That pain is loss, but for many of the families — who had held a press conference earlier the same day — it was also watching the names and histories of their loved ones dragged through the media, distorted into caricatures that they could not recognize.
The drip, drip, drip of public documents that show people at their worst. The families believe law enforcement laundered outright lies through newspapers and television programs, accepted by an industry dominated by white people who don’t question police reports and were looking for a story.
“When the police get done, you kill their character,” said Kimberly Handy-Jones on the morning of June 18.
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As the sun dipped slowly down, holding stubbornly onto the June sky, the night air was filled with remembrances of Lyles, an ode to George Floyd, and calls for change. Lyles’ family has very specific demands.
First, they want Kent, Federal Way, Auburn, and Renton, as well as the two police officers who shot Lyles, to drop lawsuits that are preventing a full inquest into Lyles’ death. …
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Second, they signed onto the demand to defund SPD by 50%, a demand echoed by protesters in the city and a handful of Seattle City Councilmembers.
Finally, they want the resignation of Mayor Jenny Durkan. Durkan came to them before she won the 2017 mayoral race and promised to be different … (Archibald 1-2).
Works cited:
Archibald, Ashley. “Seattle Police Killing of Charleena Lyles Localized Black Lives Matter Protests and Amasses Similar Stories, Three Years Later.” South Seattle Emerald, June 24, 2020. Net. https://southseattleemerald.com/2020/06/24/seattle-police-killing-of-charleena-lyles-localizes-black-lives-matter-protests-and-amasses-similar-stories-three-years-later/
Burton, Lynsi. “Attorneys: Seattle Cop Who Killed Charleena Lyles Lied about Shooting.” Seattle PI, June, 19, 2018. Net. https://www.seattlepi.com/local/crime/article/Attorney-Seattle-cop-who-killed-Charleena-Lyles-13004940.php
KUOW Staff. “Judge Dismisses Claims against Two Seattle Police Officers in Charleena Lyles Case.” KUOW, January 1, 2019. Net. https://www.kuow.org/stories/king-county-judge-dismisses-charleena-lyles-lawsuit-against-two-police-officers
Levin, Sam. “Seattle Insists It's a Model for Progressive Policing – So Why Was Charleena Lyles Killed?” The Guardian, July 17, 2017. Net. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/17/seattle-police-model-charleena-lyles-killed
Levin, Sam. “Seattle Police Shot Charleena Lyles Seven Times, Autopsy Finds.” The Guardian, August 30, 2017. Net. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/30/charleena-lyles-seattle-police-shooting
Levin, Sam. “Seattle Woman Killed by Police While Children Were Home after Reporting Theft.” The Guardian, June 19, 2017. Net. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/19/seattle-police-shooting-charleena-lyles-mother
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