Seattle demands transparency into ‘officer-involved shooting’

Seattle, WA – On November 2, the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (SAARPR) held a press conference in response to an Seattle Police Department killing three days before. The press conference was held where the killing took place, by the intersection of 4th Avenue S and S Holgate Street.

The press conference comes as a response to the conflicted reporting by SPD. On the day of the killing, SPD reported that the officers involved shot the man, and that he was armed with an “edged weapon, potentially an axe.” Later in the evening, the King County Sheriff’s Office, which is responsible for the investigation, stated that the victim had a firearm, and that he “produced a firearm” during the shooting.

“Why is it that we only hear a day after this killing that the victim had a gun?” commented Jonathan Toledo, the branch chair of SAARPR. “Was it because they didn’t know about the gun because he didn’t pull it out? We would love to give SPD the benefit of the doubt, but we cannot, because they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy.”

The Seattle Police Department has a history of shooting Black or brown people for holding an “edged weapon.” Referring to the case of Terry Caver, a Black man killed in May 2020 under a minute after making contact with the police, Toledo continued, “This isn’t just Terry Caver and today. The history goes back decades. Herbert Hightower Jr., John T. Williams, Urban Seay – I have an issue with our Seattle Police Department having such a reputation for shooting and killing Black and brown people armed with kitchen knives that it’s considered suicide.”

SPD recently exited the Federal Consent Decree, established in 2012 after the police killing of John T. Williams, a Native American wood carver. Williams was holding a closed carving knife. Ian Birk, the officer who killed Williams, resigned one year later. Following an investigation by the Department of Justice, SPD was placed under a Consent Decree that required it to conform to constitutional policing practices.

In September 2025, after 13 years under the consent decree, Seattle successfully petitioned the court to lift the restrictions, citing a “comprehensive transformation,” and “one of the strongest accountability systems in the country.” Despite this, many of the same issues with SPD faced by people living in Seattle are still a reality today.

“We know they won’t hold themselves accountable. We have many, many police officers with a long track record of shootings. The story being created is that they needed to subdue this person with a blade, but we need to see the footage, and know which officers were involved in the shooting. We deserve to know who is responsible.”

The Seattle Alliance is demanding that SPD immediately release the names of the officers involved, as well as all dashcam and body-worn video of the shooting.

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