USA TODAY International Edition
Officer, lacking a Taser, shoots pregnant mother
Woman was wielding two knives, police say
Seattle police officers discussed using a Taser — but did not have one — before fatally shooting a pregnant mother they said was armed with two knives, audio and transcripts released by police reveal.
Two officers were sent to the apartment of Charleena Lyles, 30, on Sunday after she called in a burglary. A perfunctory discussion about an Xbox that apparently was stolen suddenly grew tense, the transcripts show.
“Get back, get back, get back,” an officer says, apparently to Lyles.
The other officer calls for “fast back- up.”
A moment later, Lyles says, “Get ready, ( expletives).”
One of the officers says, “We need help. ( Unintelligible) a woman with two knives.”
The other again orders Lyles to “get back.”
“Get back. Tase her,” an officer says.
“I don’t have a Taser,” the other officer says. Then, “Get back, get back.”
Each officer repeats the “get back” order, apparently directed at Lyles, before shots ring out.
“Suspect is down, we need officers on- scene, we need medics as well. We are not under control. Officer ( redacted), are you all right?” says one officer.
“I’m all right, are you all right?” the other officer responds.
The officers performed first aid immediately, but emergency responders declared the woman dead when they arrived, police said in a statement. It added that several children were inside the apartment at the time of the shooting but were not injured. Family members took custody of the children.
Police said both officers were equipped with “less lethal force options,” but not a Taser. Both had received crisis intervention training.
“While recognizing that the release of information can be source of tension during active, ongoing investigations, SPD also believes that transparency throughout the investigation of deadly force incidents is essential to maintaining public trust,” the statement said.
Normally one officer responds to a burglary call. Two were sent to Lyles’ home because of an incident two weeks earlier when she waved shears at officers, police said.
K. L. Shannon, a community organizer and local NAACP official, said Lyles weighed less than 100 pounds.
“This young woman was shot down like a dog,” Shannon told The Seattle Times. “They could have overpowered her.”
Her brother, Domico Jones, told The Seattle Times his sister had some mental problems. She also had four children, wrote poetry and never learned to drive.
“She was nobody that you would ever think would be intimidating to a police officer,” he said. “We definitely need all the answers we can get. I’m lost.”