Today is the three-year anniversary of the fatal shooting by Seattle Police of a homeless black man in The University District named Shawn Maxwell. Here is what happened, according to a Seattle Times article (free reg. req.) on an inquest jury's decision that the officers acted reasonably.

Two Seattle police officers were in fear for their lives when they fatally shot a sword-carrying man in the University District on Feb. 18, a six-person jury decided yesterday after a weeklong inquest. Brett Rogers and Stanley Streubel shot 31-year-old Shawn Maxwell after a chase through residents' back yards that was preceded by a routine traffic stop. Witnesses had testified that Maxwell was carrying a martial-arts sword and had raised it over his head.

....After the shooting, officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle demanded a "fair and impartial" federal investigation into the shooting, stopping short of saying that race was a factor in the case. Both officers are white; Maxwell was black.

Witnesses had said Maxwell was pulled over on Northeast 50th Street for failing to signal. When an officer approached his car, he sped off, hitting another car on the way. He then got out of the car and ran, at which point a series of confrontations began between Maxwell and up to a half-dozen officers.

Officer Jeff Johnson testified that Maxwell turned toward him and pulled out the sword. "I said, 'Drop the sword. Drop the knife.' " Johnson testified. "I said that over and over again. He was yelling back, 'Just shoot me.' "

Maxwell took off running again and was later shot by a stun gun but to no effect, the jurors found. After the stun gun failed, Maxwell raised the sword over his head and was felled by two bullets. He struggled to rise and was shot by a second officer, who also believed lives were at risk, the jury found.

The findings, said the officers' attorney, Ted Buck, were "fairly predictable given the testimony of witnesses. Certainly it is a tragic situation ... but Mr. Maxwell didn't leave these officers much of a choice."

Here are a few lessons we may draw from the Maxwell case. If police stop your vehicle, do not flee in your car, or on foot. Do not turn toward a policeman in pursuit of you, pull out a sword and say, "Just shoot me." If police fire a stun gun at you, you should really stop whatever it is you are doing that is irritating them. If you have caused police to fire at you with a stun gun and twice with a handgun, it is really, really time to stop whatever it is you are doing that is irritating them. After being shot at with a stun gun, and fired upon twice with a handgun, you should not raise a sword to police. If you do, you may be killed.

A question also arises. Why does someone run from police after a routine traffic stop?

Today's Seattle Times obituary section carries a notice paid for by Maxwell's family. It says, in part, "WE WILL NOT REST UNTIL JUSTICE PREVAILS."

It already has.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 18, 2005 10:48 AM

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