SEATTLE — After days of hearing testimony in an inquest to ascertain the facts about the fatal shooting of Charleena Lyles, jurors deliberated and found that the two officers who fatally shot the mother of four used reasonable force.
The jury ruled it did not appear as though a reasonably effective alternative to deadly force existed, and that the amount of force used was reasonable.
They determined that a stun gun would not have been a reasonably effective alternative, that officer complied with the use of force policy as it related to firearms, and that the officers’ actions were consistent with Seattle Police Department training.
They also determined the officers did not comply with SPD policy on the use of force with a stun gun/electrical weapon.
On Father’s Day in 2017, Lyles, 30, called police to report a burglary at her Magnuson Park apartment.
Seattle police officers Jason Anderson and Steven McNew shot her seven times. They said Lyles suddenly came at them with a knife.
Lyles’ family insists she had a history of mental health problems, and that the officers failed to de-escalate the situation before shooting her.
“They killed my daughter for nothing,” said Charleena’s father, Charles Lyle. “Nothing is going to bring my daughter back. But I was hoping they could at least be accountable for the actions that they did.”
In the final day of testimony on Tuesday, McNew said there was no time to give Lyles detailed verbal warnings before he fired his gun.
He said he had to protect himself.
“I felt that, that ... it was clear that if I’ve got my gun pointed toward you, and I’m a police officer, and you’re coming toward me with a knife, and I say, ‘Get back,’ that’s sufficient warning,” said McNew.
Anderson, the other officer, originally told investigators he was trapped in a confined space and his back was against a closed door when Lyles lunged at him, but surveillance video showed the officers backing up through an open door into a hallway.
Anderson agreed that his memory and the video don’t match.
“I was somewhere at the corner of the peninsula talking to Ms. Lyles. She’s in front of me. I see her produce the knife. She’s lunging it towards me, and I did one of these (demonstrates a jump to the jury) movements. You know, there’s very little space behind me and, you know, I go for the hall, I hit the door — I don’t remember that,” said Anderson.
Lyle’s cousin, Katrina Johnson, said the inquest gave her even more clarity about how officers failed Charleena.
“I was hoping that this process was going to change my mind. That I wasn’t going to think that ‘you murdered my cousin and that you had maybe other options.’ But you murdered my cousin and you had several other options,” said Johnson.
Both Anderson and McNew were cleared by Seattle police and are still on the job.
While the jury’s findings in the inquest are legally nonbinding, there are recommendations to advise policy changes.
Any decision to charge an officer with a crime is up to the King County prosecutor’s office, which monitored the entire process.
“Charleena Lyles’ death is a tragedy. Details of the incident shared at the inquest are heartbreaking. My office had a senior deputy prosecuting attorney observing the inquest process. In the coming weeks, we will review all of the admissible evidence that was presented at the inquest and the jury’s answers to each of the interrogatories and make a final charging decision,” said King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg.
Following the verdict, the Seattle Police Department issued this statement to KIRO 7:
“Five years ago, the Lyles family, the Seattle community, the involved SPD officers, and our entire department were shaken by this unquestionably tragic event. The SPD thanks the inquest administrator and his staff and all involved for their efforts to ensure a fair and transparent fact-finding process, and we thank the jury for its thoughtful and careful deliberation.”
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