Seattle police were restraining Keenan Pearson immediately before he died, an eyewitness to last Saturday’s in-custody death said. SeattleU law student Le’Jayah Washington was at the R-Day Block Party in Georgetown and saw it unfold.
According to a press release from the King County independent investigation team, known as IFIT-KC, Seattle police officers were holding Pearson and calling for medical aid. Washington said that a man had assaulted Pearson in a bar called 9lb. Hammer, and security had ejected both of them.
Though Pearson was part of the disturbance, he was not under arrest or in handcuffs initially and was leaning against the pushbar of an officer’s cruiser.
Pearson had fallen while security was ejecting him from the bar and was lying in the street when officers found him. There’s conflicting information. Per IFIT-KC, officers said Pearson was having trouble standing on his own. At the same time, on a radio call, an officer on the scene implied that he did not believe that Pearson’s injuries were serious and that medics may only be needed to “check his vitals.”
At 8:20 pm, a Seattle police officer relayed to dispatch that he was “alert and conscious.” Shortly thereafter, Washington said Pearson began saying “Ow” and touching his side.
He stepped forward off of the pushbar and fell to the ground. The IFIT-KC release said he fell and rolled, but Washington described his movements as actively “rocking” rather than collapsing and rolling.
A group of four to five officers turned him on his abdomen and began handcuffing him, Washington said. The IFIT-KC statement insinuated that this was for his own protection because he was “rolling across the roadway.” However, Washington said that he was never in any danger. The street was closed due to the festival.
Washington said that the officers were on top of him for around three minutes until he stopped moving and responding. She said one of them was kneeling on his neck.
They rolled him onto his side into the “recovery position,” then sat him up, but he no longer appeared to be sitting up on his own. Washington said he seemed to be slumped against an officer’s leg.
Paramedics arrived at around 8:27 pm. Washington said she saw the medics check his pulse and begin chest compressions almost immediately. According to IFIT-KC, Pearson lost consciousness five minutes after EMTs arrived during their patient evaluation.
This morning on NPR the Mayor triumphantly declaring that the budget was in positive territory and by god you can feel safer because somehow they managed to find another 66 cops to keep us safe.
normally I’d say “what in the passively voiced fuck is that headline” but I’m a bit more forgiving given it came from an actual SPD watchdog group.
ACAB. They killed this dude.
I don’t see any protests this time around. Fascism must be working.
It apparently wasn’t a hostile or violent murder, more like mamslaughter: they should have known better, but are apparently a bunch of dumb fucks.
Being angry cause they’re stupid isn’t as easy as being angry cause they are violent monsters… Protests are more common when people become enraged by severe violations of civil behavior by LEOs.
A protest here wouldn’t be any less warranted, but it would likely be less productive. The LEOs involved appear to just need better training.
They need firing, not training. Not only were they entitely casual about the health of a victim of assault that just collapsed in front of them, they fucking handcuffed him and piled 5 people on top of him for several minutes instead of providing any kind of medical care. Especially egregious is the officer kneeling on his neck, a hold that is explicitly forbidden by SPD policy and that they are well aware kills people.
Thats not inexperience or a lack of training, thats malicious indifference and a just out flat rotten attitude about the people you are there to serve. Get these murderous fucks out of SPD, and get them prosecuted for at least manslaughter.
