Didn't hear anything about this shooting until today
 

I'd be really curious to see the cop collective's defense of this

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What did I miss?

U missed the fact the guy was minding his own business. He happened to have a legal length knife open which apparently warrants this kind of behavior from the cops. Shameful.

I bet he drops the knife next time....errrrrr

Sadly, there won't be a next time.

The video and the article below don't sound too good for the cop, but since I can't see what actually happened...

Local News | SPD to release dash-cam video in fatal shooting of woodcarver | Seattle Times Newspaper

Learn the facts of the case.

This old guy was a threat to no one. SOB cop shot him in the side from 10ft away. He's wasn't a threat of any kind.

I'm typically a supporter of the cops, but this young buck was just itching to shoot.

It was Murder.

I'm so misunderstood :)

I watched the video, not much to see.

The cop must have been on crack to shoot so quickly after asking Williams to drop the knife. I think he watched one too many Indiana Jones movies.

"Birk, 27, has said he stopped Williams because he was carrying an open-bladed knife and a piece of wood while walking across the intersection of Boren Avenue and Howell Street on Aug. 30. Birk said he fired when Williams didn't respond to three commands to drop the knife. Williams, a First Nations member in Canada, was struck by four bullets."

From listening to the tape, it seems he hardly gave the guy a chance to drop the knife. Pretty sad if this is what law enforcement has come to.

Murder in uniform. That cop should spend the rest of his life in jail at least.

that's pretty much cold blooded murder any way you look at it.. Don't need Sniper to translate this one for us

JEEZUS!

Initial contact to 5 shots = 4 seconds.

"I asked him to drop the knife multiple times, and he wouldn't do it, so I shot him."

Remember never to whittle in Seattle.

my thoughts exactly.

Reports say that the victim was deaf/partially deaf

I can't imagine what could have happened off camera (and was not reported by witnesses) to justify this shoot.

They're counting on the fact that we can't see. Otherwise, the dashcam footage would be 'missing' or 'unavailable.'

here's my thought.......and question.....
maybe the guy was hard of hearing? seeing? and someone yelling at him to drop the knife....for all we know the old dude though he was about to get mugged......then the cop (who mind you DID NOT VERBALLY IDENTIFY HIMSELF AS A COP) shoots after 4 seconds.....for having the power to take life you need a brain.......
you've got to be f'ing kidding me........

he feared for his life? he should've never got out of his ****ing car.......this makes me very angry.......

I understand his thought process in doing it, though he obviously made the wrong decision.

He's a new cop. They go through all sorts of training on simulators and such. They teach you that a guy with a knife that is 21 feet away can cross that distance in one second. They teach you that it takes two seconds from when you decide to shoot until you can fire the first shot when your hand is grasping your holstered gun. The simulator has situations where where the guy stabs you if you hesitate or he just takes too long dropping his weapon.

What this guy didn't have was the experience to realistically assess the situation. A young, fit guy can cross 21 feet in one second. This was an older guy who obviously could not. And while assessing his age, he should have considered the potential for hearing issues and ensure he was heard and understood before proceeding. The guy wasn't coming for him, after all.

I see the witness chose to stick around....

If you check out seattletimes.com or any of the local news channels up here, you'll see that SPD is doing this way too regularly.

There has actually even been calls for the Justice Deptartment to come in and investigate whether or not it's a systemic problem.

We personally got to witness this when being pulled over for a bogus sobriety check (cop claimed the lights were off in the Cayenne, at night, when they have been set ot auto since we bought it), had all sorts of profanity to say, had the car pulled in front of his, so the dashcam was no good, almost drew on me when I just slowly got out to check the lights (as he told me to), etc.

Out of control.