Stories vary about mentally ill man killed by Seattle Police
Mar 1, 2013, 6:56 AM | Updated: 7:23 am
Jack Keewatinawin, 21, a known schizophrenic with a violent criminal history, was shot and killed by Seattle Police Officers Tuesday night. His father and brothers say it shouldn't have happened.
A mentally ill man is dead after being shot by Seattle Police this week, but could it have been prevented?
It was after sunset, just before 8 p.m., on Tuesday evening when Jack Keewatinawin’s older brother first called 911. He was scared his younger brother might kill their father.
“My little brother just called me. He thinks that I raped his girlfriend and I took his money,” he told dispatchers. “And my dad was in the background saying ‘please stop, please stop.'”
He went on to say his brother is schizophrenic, violent and paranoid of police. It would also become clear later, Keewatinawin was a known sex offender.
“You guys have been out there before to arrest Jack, and I think he’s got a warrant out for his arrest right now,” his brother said.
That warrant had been issued just over a month ago after Keewatinawin had stopped checking in with his probation officer.
As police were working to respond to the first call for help, Keewatinawin’s other brother also called police frantic that his dad’s life was in danger.
“My dad’s being killed right now! Please, my brother’s schizophrenic and he’s flipping out,” he exclaimed.
As police headed for the duplex in Northwest Seattle they knew they would likely come up against a violent, mentally ill man who was putting a family member in danger, but what they didn’t know was what else they might be in for.
When asked whether Keewatinawin had any additional weapons, his brother said he probably did. He also told the dispatcher his brother was a big guy, about 300 pounds, and was known to use marijuana and possibly other drugs.
But now, a different story is coming to light. Those same brothers who made the terrified calls to 911 now say they don’t believe their father was ever in danger.
Even Keewatinawin’s 70-year-old father says his son was angry, stomping around and jumping up and down, but was not threatening him. Henry Lee Northwind tells the Seattle Times they were fighting because he wouldn’t buy his son a case of beer.
Keewatinawin was shot and killed by police after officers say he stood over 31-year-old Officer Michael Spaulding, who had fallen the ground after slipping on some wet grass. Officers say he held a piece of rebar, a large stick of metal, over Spaulding’s head.
Eight to nine shots were fired by Spaulding and two other officers. Keewatinawin suffered injuries that would eventually prove to be fatal.
Keewatinawin’s father, again, tells a different story. He says his son was holding the rebar, but he had dropped to his knees. He tells the Seattle Times, the officers surrounded him and “shot him like a rabid dog.”
Describing the moments leading up to the shooting, Deputy Seattle Police Chief Nick Metz says officers twice tried to use a Taser on Keewatinawin, without success. An officer with crisis intervention training tried to talk with him, but he wouldn’t respond. And, according to Metz, the father at one point during the confrontation told police again that his son had a knife.
Officer Spaulding, Officer Stephen Sperry, and Officer Tyler Speer have been placed on paid administrative leave as the shooting is being investigated – a standard procedure for the police department.
