The Seattle police shooting incident I mentioned in a recent column is back in the news today.
If you haven’t seen it yet, the Seattle Times, Seattle PI and KIRO 7 chose to post a dash camera video taken during the fatal shooting of carver John T. Williams. I’d imagine other Seattle news agencies will follow suit, and you’ll see it on all the evening broadcasts tonight. The actual shooting takes place outside the camera’s frame, unlike in our case surrounding the shooting of Matthew Netter, but the audio of the four gun shots and Officer Ian Birk’s verbal response is very clear.
Also unlike the Netter video, which the Kitsap County Prosecutor could view when determining whether or not the Silverdale shooting was justified, you don’t see Birk or his reaction at all following the shooting. His voice is audible as more law enforcement arrives though.
There is an editor’s note on the Times’ story, explaining what is shown in case readers want a warning about violent content. I don’t see anything similar on the KIRO or PI sites, or any further explanation from Times editors on the decision making. When all media jumps in the newsworthiness is fairly evident — though that’s not to say you can’t still stand on principle. But there was no public records fight like we had to deal with, which was a unique part of our case and behind my explanation to you all.
—David
