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The jury hearing the inquest into Che Taylor's shooting death has reached a decision and generally backed the Seattle police officers who killed him.
The jury hearing the inquest into Che Taylor's shooting death has reached a decision and generally backed the Seattle police officers who killed him.
André Taylor speaks during a protest calling for action after SPD fatally shot his brother in an altercation on Sunday, on 4th Avenue in front of the Westlake Center on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016.
André Taylor speaks during a protest calling for action after SPD fatally shot his brother in an altercation on Sunday, on 4th Avenue in front of the Westlake Center on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016.
The jury hearing the inquest into Che Taylor's shooting death reached a decision Friday and generally backed the Seattle police officers who killed him.
Most of the jurors decided that officers thought Taylor posed a threat to them.
Taylor, 46, was shot Feb. 21, 2016, in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood during an undercover drug operation. Officers Michael Spaulding and Scott Miller say Taylor didn't follow commands when they tried to arrest him for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Seven of eight jurors decided Spaulding believed Taylor posed a threat of death or serious bodily injury. One juror didn't know. Six jurors decided that Miller thought Taylor posed a threat. One didn't and one didn't know.
Six of the eight jurors decided that Miller thought he saw Taylor wearing a holstered pistol on his right hip. Six jurors also decided that Spaulding saw Taylor move to his right hip. Two said they didn't know.
The jury said officers did not see a pistol in Taylor's hand after he was shot or in his holster.
A pistol was later found in car nearby, jurors decided.
Jurors said Taylor was handcuffed after he was shot and that a officer began CPR on him.
The jury also ruled that Taylor would not have survived had the CPR been started earlier.
Jurors began deliberating Thursday after nearly a week of testimony.
Spaulding and Miller have said they feared their lives were in danger. A Seattle Police Department investigation found that the officers acted within policy. Taylor's family disagrees, saying that the African-American man's shooting was unjustified.
"I'm here for my son's death and after seeing the officers for the first time it's painful, it's just painful," Joyce Dorsey, Taylor's mother, said at a court appearance earlier this year.
Taylor's family said they're hopeful the jury will side against the police.
"I pray that when they deliberate it comes out that they didn't do what they were supposed to. They killed him," Brenda Taylor, the slain man's wife, said.
Inquests are fact-finding hearings routinely ordered after police-involved deaths. After hearing testimony, eight jurors are asked to answer a list of questions to help determine the causes and facts surrounding the police shooting case.
Among the 55 questions jurors were asked to answer: Did the two officers know Taylor had recently been released from prison for violent crimes? Did they see Taylor armed? Did the officers believe Taylor was reaching for his gun?
You can read the full list of questions here.
The inquest will not determine civil or criminal liability. Andre Taylor, the slain man's brother, has described court proceedings up to this point as "tedious."
"Everything is about fairness," Andre Taylor said in a previous court appearance. "We're not against the police...but we need them to be accountable."
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