Looking for closure, Charleena Lyles’ family feels outraged after first day of inquest
Questions persist over the 2017 death of Charleena Lyles, the mother of four who was shot and killed by Seattle police inside her Magnuson Park apartment. An inquest into the incident began Tuesday at the King County Child and Family Justice Center.
Two officers claim Lyles lunged at them with a knife, but her family has pushed back on that narrative. In the five years since the incident, there have been protests as well as allegations that the fatal shooting was racially motivated. In November of 2021, the city of Seattle reached a $3.5 million settlement with Lyles’ family. According to a family attorney, the goal of the roughly two-week-long inquest is to show a fuller picture of Lyles’ mental health struggles, including an incident where SPD was able to de-escalate a.situation with her 10 days before her fatal shooting.
Katrina Johnson, Lyles’ cousin, was among the family members sitting in on the inquest. Lyles says they came into the courthouse with an open mind.
“We’ve been on this cliffhanger for five years, and the information that I’m getting now is not changing my mind that you murdered my cousin,” said Johnson. “I’m thinking even more now, you guys murdered my cousin.”
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The entirety of the first day was spent interrogating Detective Jason Dewey, the lead investigator on the case. Dewey walked the audience through call logs, timelines and diagrams. According to Dewey, one of the officers ran Lyles’ name in the system before he headed into the apartment complex. The results of that search were noteworthy.
“He located an officer safety hit, officer safety flag in the system showing she had previously threatened officers,” said Dewey.
Dash camera footage from an SPD squad car was also shown, as was surveillance footage of the hallway outside Lyles’ unit. In the video, two officers with blurred faces enter the home. Shouting and gunshots are heard; however, the officers are never seen on camera firing their weapons. Dewey confirmed when the shots rang out, three children were inside the apartment, among them an infant. Lyles’ cousin, Tonya Isabell, says those kids will be traumatized forever.
“That baby had to be close when those bullets went flying,” said Isabell. “That baby had to be close to crawl up on her mom after she’d been shot.”
Lyles’ cousins tell KIRO 7 that they expect more family members to show up over the coming days.
The inquest is scheduled to wrap up July 6.
