A Community Has Questions After Police Shoot a Homeless Man

My feet tingled a bit while I stood in the foyer of Seattle City Hall, and not just because they had gotten wet in the falling rain. But I had to be here, along with hundreds of others, to protest the shooting of a well-known First Nations homeless man by Seattle police on Aug. 30. He was shot to death a few blocks from this place, this place that houses city officials.

John Williams, 50, was carrying his wood-carving knife when he was stopped by 27-year-old officer Ian Birk. Birk told Williams to drop the knife but he didn't, possibly because he was deaf in one ear and wearing headphones and suffered cognitive damage from long-term alcoholism. Birk then fired four rounds from a distance of nine feet, killing Williams.

At city hall, pounding from the drums echoed through the crowd and those with rattles kept in time with the beat. They asked questions like, "Why didn't officer Birk use a Taser?" and "Why was an officer approaching John anyway?" When a councilman spoke, many were murmuring amongst themselves. "Murder!" shouted a woman standing behind me. At first, the councilman looked uncomfortable standing in the center of the drumming circle. A young native woman standing behind him whispered in his ear, "Are you afraid?"

I didn't realize how emotionally drained I was until after I watched the little video I made using my friend's camera and posted on YouTube.

I scanned the faces in the crowd, many of them Native American or First Nations tribal members, many of them familiar — especially those of people I know to be living in motels with small children. Red and black blankets draped the shoulders of elders and quite a few young men and women were here out of respect. Their common denominator is homelessness. I stared at the younger faces because I wonder if we'll be mourning them someday. Already they abhor the police.

I rode a bus out of the city and happened to sit next to a couple all the way in the back. They said they were with John Williams when he was shot. The elder male told me that he took and hid the carving John was working on that awful night. It is in the hands of John's family now. After a few moments of silence, he told me his companion found a body in the dumpsters the other night. She nodded her head in agreement then said that she thought she saw a young person lying face down. She was right; a man described as a transient was arrested soon after for strangling a friend who was also homeless. He said he had no regrets because his friend was ready to end his life and had asked for help.

My teenager suffers from depression because we are homeless. My mind can't help but imagine the worst.

Photo credit: Indy