‘You have to really do something for SPD to engage’: Gee chooses nuance over outrage after man dies in Seattle police custody

A man died in police custody Saturday evening in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood, and the King County Independent Force Investigation Team has taken over the case.

Gee Scott, co-host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, took on the story with a level of nuance he acknowledged may not get clicks but was the responsible way to talk about it.

“There wasn’t a crime that was committed, and I also don’t think that the police officers that showed up to the scene, I don’t think that they wanted this man to die. All things can be true,” he said.

Officers found the man lying on a sidewalk in the 6000 block of Airport Way South around 8:17 p.m., unable to speak or care for himself. Officers escorted him to a nearby patrol car and initially let him sit on the front push bar without handcuffs while they called for medical aid. At some point, the man dropped to the ground and rolled into the roadway.

Officers then placed him in handcuffs. Drew Anderson with the King County Independent Force Investigation Team confirmed the sequence of events.

“While responders were waiting for aid to arrive, the subject lost consciousness, and by the time EMTs arrived and first responders arrived to try to resuscitate the subject, he was pronounced deceased,” Anderson said.

The question of handcuffs

Gee sent prayers to the man’s family, and acknowledged there would be questions, specifically about why the man was handcuffed when no crime was being investigated. The circumstances suggested officers were trying to help, not harm.

“This is someone who apparently wasn’t able to communicate. He wasn’t able to stand. Police officers had to bring him back up. Police officers also requested medical help in this case,” Gee explained. “Will there be questions about why the handcuffs got on? Yes, there will be.”

He shared a personal story from years ago in Chicago, where an officer asked to handcuff him during a solo traffic stop while searching his vehicle, not because of a crime, but for safety. Gee said the moment, while legally questionable, helped him understand the gray area officers sometimes navigate.

“We don’t know the reasons as to why this person was handcuffed,” Gee said. “Was it for the safety of this person or the safety of the officers? This is where we want to wait for the investigation.”

A different era of policing

KIRO producer Andrew Lanier asked Gee if people have a knee-jerk reaction when they see the words “man dies in police custody.”

“Yeah. Yeah, they do,” Gee said. “I used to have that reaction. I used to have that same negative feeling: ‘Oops! What happened? Oh boy, here we go again.'”

Gee said conversations with law enforcement, along with the reality of modern policing, body cameras, updated rules of engagement, and independent investigations mandated under Washington law, changed his perspective.

“I’m going to tell you right now. If you are out and about in 2026 and you’re walking down the street, you have to really, really, really, really do something for SPD to engage with you,” Gee said. “Period. I don’t care what color you are. I don’t care how old you are. You got to be doing something really outrageous for SPD to pull up on you.”

Andrew echoed the point, noting that Washington investigates police-involved deaths in a way “like virtually no state also does.” He also acknowledged the other side of the reaction: officers who see a case like this and brace for public blowback before any facts come out.

No outrage, no finger-pointing

Gee said he understood why the topic might feel unsatisfying to some listeners. There was no outrage, no finger-pointing, no rush to judgment. He called for body camera footage to be reviewed, for tactics to be examined, and for the investigation to play out.

“It’s a tragic thing. It’s very unfortunate. I’m quite sure that this is going to have an impact on those officers that were there,” Gee said. “Feel sorry for the man that’s passed away. Feel sorry for the family of that man. There could be a possibility those officers in there, maybe they were there doing the right thing, doing the best thing, and this is unfortunate that it happened.”

He meditated on his role in the media landscape.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in doing this job, the extreme stuff, the ‘oh my goodness’ which way or the other, whatever sells, gets clicks,” Gee said. “This topic right here might be boring for some, the way I talked about this, about showing you all sides of it, but let’s go ahead and wait for the investigation.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.