Mayor meets with protesters over carver's fatal shooting

"There is injustice, historic injustice, that has to change," Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn told a crowd that had marched to City Hall on Thursday to protest the fatal shooting of a First Nations carver by a Seattle police officer.

"You will judge us ultimately not by my words today, but by our actions," said the mayor, holding a carved talking stick passed to him by protest leaders. "We will be held accountable."

The crowd had marched to City Hall through rainy streets from the intersection of Boren Avenue and Howell Street, where carver John T. Williams, 50, was shot Aug. 30. The demonstrators, many of them Native American or First Nations tribal members, carried branches of cedar, a symbol of cleansing and healing.

They sang the songs of their ancestors all the way into City Hall, with its artwork representing Indian canoes, paddles and cedar hats, evoking the city's roots.

After a time of drumming, singing and speeches, the mayor came to welcome the peaceful demonstration. "We all know the shooting of John Williams was a tragedy," McGinn said.

He was surrounded by a group of singers and drummers, who offered a song intended to be medicine for his spirit. Handed a rolled-up T-shirt, he used it to pat his left palm in time with the drums.

Williams, 50, was killed by Seattle police Officer Ian Birk, 27, a two-year member of the force. Birk apparently stopped Williams because he was carrying a piece of wood and the small folding knife Williams used for carving.

Witnesses said Birk ordered Williams three times to drop the knife before he fired at least four rounds from a distance of about nine feet. Police initially said Williams advanced toward the officer, but they later retracted that statement.

Witnesses and Williams' family and friends say Williams could not have been any threat because of his many health problems, and that the officer overreacted by resorting to deadly force in a matter of moments, without calling for backup.

A member of the Ditidaht Tribe of Vancouver Island, Williams was well known in the neighborhood where he was shot.

In a letter to the mayor and City Council, organizers of the march, representing a range of civil-rights, faith, and community groups, made a list of demands, including appointment of a tribal liaison at the mayor's office. They also raised questions, including what prompted Birk to stop Williams in the first place, and why he did not make certain Williams heard and understood him before firing.

Williams was often found carving as he sat on benches outside restaurants and coffee shops in the neighborhood, or even as he walked; he was that good.

Williams' family has said he probably didn't even hear the officer command him to drop the knife because he was deaf in one ear, and wearing headphones.

Williams had been homeless for years but had just moved back to 1811 Eastlake, a home for chronic inebriates, where he gifted staff members with his carvings. He'd had many run-ins with the law, including one indecent-exposure charge. He could be volatile at times if he had been drinking, those who knew him well have said. But he had no history of violence or aggression.

McGinn met with leaders of the demonstration afterward, to hear their concerns. He and Police Chief John Diaz held a news conference Wednesday announcing a shake-up at the department intended to improve training and community relations.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com