A police dashboard-camera video released Friday shows woodcarver John T. Williams and Officer Ian Birk moments before their fatal encounter on a Seattle street last summer. Audio on the same video also captures the officer telling Williams to drop a knife he was carrying just before the gunshots are heard.
The actual shooting was not caught on video because of the position of Birk's patrol car.
On the video, Williams can be seen walking in front of Birk's car. Williams is carrying a knife and a piece of wood. Then Birk is seen following after Williams. After telling Williams three times to drop the knife, several gunshots can be heard.
Birk can be heard explaining to a witness why he opened fire. He is also heard telling responding officers what happened.
A King County judge on Thursday ordered the release of the previously confidential video despite opposition from Birk's attorney, Ted Buck. Initially, the video was to be first shown to a six-member jury at the inquest scheduled to begin Jan. 10. But the Williams family, The Seattle Times and KING-TV requested that the video be released after the attorney for the family privately submitted it to the judge last month as part of pre-inquest proceedings Still frames from the video were publicly disclosed at the time the video was provided to Chapman.
Birk, 27, has said he stopped Williams because he was carrying an open-bladed knife and a piece of wood while walking across the intersection of Boren Avenue and Howell Street on Aug. 30. Birk said he fired when Williams didn't respond to the commands to drop the knife. Williams, a First Nations member in Canada, was struck by four bullets.
Birk fired four seconds after issuing the first command to drop the knife, Tim Ford, the attorney for the Williams' family, disclosed last month after reviewing the video and listening to its audio.
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