Now they're killing woodcarvers! (cop involved shooting)

[Bennyboy]

A police dashboard-camera video released Friday shows woodcarver John T. Williams and Officer Ian Birk moments before their fatal encounter on a Seattle street last summer. Audio on the same video also captures the officer telling Williams to drop a knife he was carrying just before the gunshots are heard.

The actual shooting was not caught on video because of the position of Birk's patrol car.

On the video, Williams can be seen walking in front of Birk's car. Williams is carrying a knife and a piece of wood. Then Birk is seen following after Williams. After telling Williams three times to drop the knife, several gunshots can be heard.

Birk can be heard explaining to a witness why he opened fire. He is also heard telling responding officers what happened.

A King County judge on Thursday ordered the release of the previously confidential video despite opposition from Birk's attorney, Ted Buck. Initially, the video was to be first shown to a six-member jury at the inquest scheduled to begin Jan. 10. But the Williams family, The Seattle Times and KING-TV requested that the video be released after the attorney for the family privately submitted it to the judge last month as part of pre-inquest proceedings Still frames from the video were publicly disclosed at the time the video was provided to Chapman.

Birk, 27, has said he stopped Williams because he was carrying an open-bladed knife and a piece of wood while walking across the intersection of Boren Avenue and Howell Street on Aug. 30. Birk said he fired when Williams didn't respond to the commands to drop the knife. Williams, a First Nations member in Canada, was struck by four bullets.

Birk fired four seconds after issuing the first command to drop the knife, Tim Ford, the attorney for the Williams' family, disclosed last month after reviewing the video and listening to its audio.
READ MORE
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013705989_video18m.html

[femmocrat]

1. Was he an Asian woodcarver?

SORRY! Couldn't resist. It's really a very sad situation. Not a joking matter. Shame on me. I am slinking away now....

:yoiks: :hide:

[KT2000]

2. I can't imagine any cops

justifying what Birk did. They are trained to managed situations and escalate according to the situation - sequentially. Birk went nuts after 4 seconds. He was not even following protocol. Was he worried the man was going to throw the knife at him?
Just sad.

[Mortos]

3. Do you have any idea what the use of force protocol is for police?

They are trained to manage situations and escalate according to the actions of the person they are dealing with. The use of force protocol is not sequential. The officer can go from mere presence to deadly force in 4 seconds if that is what is necessary.

Most of the general public and you simply don't know what you are talking about when it comes to police protocol. The subject that was shot was not some storybook woodcutter who was minding his own business whittling away in a rocking chair. He was a repeat offender who had recently demonstrated escalating unstable behavior during his many contacts with police. He was an alcoholic and probably had mental problems.

The standard protocol on using deadly force on a subject armed with a knife allows officers to use deadly force if the subject is within 21 feet of them as this is considered the "kill zone" for a a knife attack. The fact that he told the person to "drop the knife" indicates that the person had a weapon out (it doesn't make a difference if it is designed to cut wood or a switchblade) and refused the officer's order and, according to the officer, advanced towards him in a threatening manner.

It is very easy for uninformed people to second guess the actions of this officer as, is your right. But you and I don't know what transpired that day and the video doesn't show the actual confrontation. Based on what I do know, there is nothing to indicate this officer did anything outside the realm of the use of force protocol.

I wonder how you would feel about walking around in that downtown area with your family and running into that person who was intoxicated or high, mentally unstable and brandishing a knife. Would you ask to see some of his fine wood carvings or would you call the police and get the heck out of the area and let them handle it?

On edit: After viewing the entire video and reading the latest updates on the story, I agree that there are some serious questions involving this officer's actions. The chief and board of review on the shooting initially ruled it unjustified. There are questions about whether the blade was open or closed. The man who was shot appeared extremely intoxicated and barely able to walk. I don't give officer's a free pass and this one looks like a young officer who overreacted. If it is proven he shot a man who was simply carrying a closed knife, then he should go to jail for murder.

[Citizen Worker]

4. The only dispute as to whether or not the knife was open is in the mind and the report written by

Birk. Another officer on the scene reported finding the knife with the blade closed and reportedly the video shows the knife was, in fact, closed. Birk's attorney is asserting that they will show during the inquest that the knife somehow closed when it hit the ground. Further, the knife blade is reportedly less than 3". To me, this is a clear cut case of murder and this is not an anomaly with the Seattle Police Department.

[KT2000]

5. Yes

of course things can escalate quickly but that was not the case here.
He murdered that man.

[Bennyboy]

6. up for fun times

[OwnedByFerrets]

7. Living in Amerika....the NEW police state.

[nolabear]

8. This happened about a mile from my house. It's a horror.

Mr. Williams is a First Nations man (can't recall what tribe) who's been a regular on Capitol Hill in Seattle for a long time. The Hill is its own wonderful place, one of the best gay neighborhoods in the country and filled with artists and city kids with more tattoos and piercings than you can count, as well as a lot of "liberal" older white folks and immigrants--absolutely wonderful folks, all. And there 's a pretty big and regular street population, lots of alcohol and drug use and Mr. Williams was among those particular citizens. He drank, and to tell the truth he could be obnoxious. But he was also well respected and was known by all, and certainly by the cops, and everyone knew he carried a knife and carved wood pretty much all the time.

I wasn't there, but I think it would be a real stretch to think of him as dangerous in any way. The police in Seattle are still spooky, I think, after a shocking number of them have been shot lately. I don't know what it is with the Northwest. Where I come from, Mississippi and Louisiana bayou country, people shoot one another with some regularity but it has a kind of Gothic sense to it. Here in Seattle folks go along for years smiling tight little smiles and walking spiders out the door and then once in a while all hell breaks loose. I feel awful

[Bennyboy]

9. Nice back story there thanks..

The police apologist there made me feel a bit uneasy about what I thought.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Good to read your comments. Thank you. n/t