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An unarmed, prone, white woman was killed by police here and hardly anyone cares about that, either.
Last edited Thu May 6, 2021, 10:39 PM - Edit history (5)
Link to tweet
I've posted the KUOW report below. First, my comments.
Maybe the powers-that-be don't care because this 39 year old mother of a 7 year old was possibly mentally ill. All that's known for sure is that she had called 911, and the police say they recovered a gun in her apartment after they shot her in her apartment hallway. (No gun was reported to be recovered with her body.)
She was killed in September 2020, when the police issued a statement that appears deceptive in retrospect (it implied that the police shot her in self defense). The Seattle Times published a short piece with the police statement. Since then, we've heard virtually nothing till NPR/KUOW came out with an investigative piece, but there are still many unanswered questions.
For example, why has no autopsy been released after 7 months? We need the autopsy to know whether she was shot in the back, as it appears, based on the KUOW report. (For comparison, George Floyd's was released in about two weeks -- so it's possible.)
Why were the involved police allowed to go back to work while the investigation was still ongoing -- even though the officers, who fired a total of 6 assault rifle bullets at her, while she was lying one the floor, had provided no statements as recently as January?
Why didn't they handcuff her after they made her lie on the ground? Why did they wait to handcuff her till after they'd shot her six times (before they administered CPR)?
When will King County and the Redmond Sheriff's office finally complete their investigation of a shooting that occurred more than 7 months ago?
There are no body cams in the suburbs of Seattle, and all the neighbors appear to have been taking shelter in their apartments, so there were apparently no other cell phone videos either. All we have to go on is this KUOW report, and it's damning.
It turns out that only 47% of the police departments in the country use body cams, and we're not lucky enough to have them here. I bet we'd have some answers by now if we did.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/redmond-woman-was-on-the-ground-for-three-minutes-when-she-was-fatally-shot-by-police-records-show
Officer Barnard yelled for her to get on the ground, which she did.
SNIP
“I looked around the area where she was laying for a weapon and I did not see one in the immediate area,” the officer wrote. The King County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit would later locate a loaded handgun in Churna’s apartment, according to an October 2020 press release.
Churna, still on the ground, turned her head to look back at officers. She asked about her ex-husband. Officers Mendoza and Barnard told Churna not to move, and said that if she did, she would be shot. Another officer told Churna that he didn’t know where her ex-husband was, and that she needed to stay still.
SNIP
As the officer with the ballistic shield and another were arriving on the fourth floor from the elevator, they heard the other officers yelling commands.
Churna had shifted her body counter-clockwise a short distance, according to police documents. Officers demanded that she stay still. Churna’s legs and lower body remained on the ground, but she lifted her chest and, according to a police report, “raised her arm in the direction towards her apartment door.”
Police opened fire again, this time striking Churna multiple times. By this point, she had been on the ground for more than three minutes.
SNIP
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/woman-fatally-shot-by-redmond-police-identified-by-medical-examiners-office/
Above is a link to the deceptive statement put out by the police and published by the Seattle Times in September. It leaves out the parts about her being unarmed at the time of the shooting, and lying on the floor. According to the KUOW report, the involved officers are all back on the job now.
Andrea Wolf-Buck, a spokesperson for the Redmond Police Department, said this week that a woman had called 911 at 9:23 p.m. Sunday and reported that someone was trying to kill her in her apartment, located in the 8700 block of 161st Avenue Northeast.
Wolf-Buck said the woman told the officers she had shot someone, but they found no one in her apartment and no known shooting victim is associated with her statement. Then, at some point, the woman confronted officers with a handgun and was shot multiple times, and she died at the scene, Wolf-Buck said this week.
Three Redmond officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated by the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Wolf-Buck said the woman told the officers she had shot someone, but they found no one in her apartment and no known shooting victim is associated with her statement. Then, at some point, the woman confronted officers with a handgun and was shot multiple times, and she died at the scene, Wolf-Buck said this week.
Three Redmond officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated by the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Redmond's Police chief says he doesn't expect, based on current information, for there to be charges against the officers, and that is why they were returned to their jobs.
65 replies
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There should be some goddamned consequences, but there never are. 
Of course you feel that this was unlikely to happen in WA.
Hope things are good in the Evergreen State! 
Except for that poor woman, of course.
