By Chris H. Bennett
Chairman, The Seattle Medium Newspaper Group
Photo/Jim Coley
One of my most eerie feelings was if and when the Seattle Police Department (SPD) would stoop to the lowest level of inhumane treatment of innocent citizens by shooting and killing a presumably, innocent woman. Particularly, since SPD has a history of recklessly shooting and killing unarmed Black men. And as always, an inquest jury found the officers innocent and justifiable of any wrong doing. It happened just a few months ago in North Seattle when, according to video account reports, show again, two White SPD Officers at point blank, shoot and killed a recent parolee. Inquest jury results, as always, justifiable.
This latest SPD bad shooting and killing happened on this past Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in just :15 seconds when an allegedly pregnant Black mother of three, Charleena Lyles, 30, was shot and killed in her apartment at the hands of two White SPD Officers, with her children in the apartment, according to SPD reports from dashcam and apartment hallway video outside Ms. Lyles’s apartment.
Even in war, according to the Geneva Convention doctrine, women and children’s lives are protected and those lives are always spared and kept out of harm’s way, in most situations. But not so when two North Seattle (North) Precinct SPD white officers were dispatched to Ms. Lyles apartment, at the 6800 block of 62nd Ave. NE, for a ‘waiting burglary call’ according to police accounts. Everything appeared to be going normal with the officers and the victims when the officers arrived. And then the victim appeared allegedly armed with a knife. It is unclear if the victim feared an alleged ‘waiting burglary’ and the knife was for her own protection from the ‘waiting burglary’ call.
According to the SPD press release, the officers were trained in crisis intervention. Plus, the Precinct, according to SPD high command officers, was believed to be familiar with the victim, as she was arrested June 5 and recently released. Furthermore, the SPD release stated in property crime normally only one officer is dispatched, two officers were dispatched to this apartment apparently because of recent incidents at that apartment and these officers were believed to have known the victim. The eerie question is how could a ‘waiting burglary’ call go from normal to tragic in a deadly :15 seconds under these circumstances? Particularly when both officers were larger and apparently at least a hundred pounds heavier than the victim. Well I guess we will need to wait until the SPD investigate, again, two of its’ own for another inquest jury to prove whether this was justifiable homicide for these two officers.
Now the new twist, is will the officers be found innocent of Ms. Charleena Lyle’s death and if all accounts of her alleged pregnancy are true, will they be found guilty of the death of her alleged unborn child, that may have been killed also in this tragic bad SPD shooting. The medical examiner’s office will need to shed light on the possibility of both deaths.
Sadly, this is the first time in recent SPD history, a Black Woman, in a call for assistance, has been shot and killed by SPD officers. Perhaps the very first time in modern history an alleged unborn child was also killed by SPD. One wonders how President Trump’s AG Jeff Session’s Justice Department will proceed with this tragedy, after all they are still in town investigating SPD.
Side bar: According to an SPD former command staff member, The North Precinct is considered the outpost within the SPD where defiant officers and officers with alleged behavior problems are reassigned. This assignment is allegedly known as “career killer”, according to several former members of the command staff.
