It will be interesting to see how this turns out. Local Seattle Times sotry here.
My previous post is here. As the Times article notes, it will be unlikely the inquest recommends prosecution for murder, but for sure Birk should never wear a uniform again.
To recap events:
At 0:52 John Williams appears on camera, ambling across the corsswalk, preoccupied with whatever he's goit in his hands (whittling wood, we presume).
At 0:59 he exits from view on the right of the screen.
At 1:04 Officer Birk appeared in view on the left of the car, having exited his vehicle to follow Williams. He walks, purposefully. He appears to have his gun drawn.
At 1:07 he starts shouting, "Hey, hey, hey, put the knife down, put the knife down, put the knife down."
At 1:09 he exits the camera view to the right, still with the cop strut going on, following determinedly, in no apparent danger.
At 1:14 he fires five shots in rapid succession.
So in five seconds, either John Williams transformed into Sasquatch or some other terror and menaced Birk, or the more likely explanation, Birk is a trigger-happy rogue cop who shot to death a harmless, almost deaf man with only a verbal warning shouted from behind. The story has it that Williams was hit ijn the side. Given the timing, it would seem perfectly logical to assume that he heard something and turned to see what the noise was about, which Birk took to be an act of menace. It's a pathetic excuse, but it's the thread by which Birk's case hangs.
At the very, very least, Birk showed appalling judgment, such that he has no business being in a police force of any kind. Sadly, the Seattle Police have a shoddy record of policing their own ranks, choosing instead to abide by the old boy's club rules. We'll see if this egregious example of the abuse of power begins to turn the tide.
God knows what the blonde woman who was walking right towards the scene as it happend thought of it all. She certainly didn't seem to see anything untoward until she jumped whent he shots were fired.
Police dashboard cam video below:
