Video exhibits that the Seattle Police Division’s East Precinct’s break room is embellished with the mock tombstone of a Black teen who died in a 2017 police-involved capturing.
The mom of the person killed mentioned she couldn’t “specific how hurtful” it was to search out out the officers displayed the pretend grave marker.
A heartbroken Ann Butts mentioned, “I didn’t suppose SPD might take extra from me. I used to be incorrect.”
Her son, Damarius Butts, was 19 when he was fatally shot 11 occasions by native police on April 20, 2017, after working from police after trying to rob a comfort retailer. Stories say the younger man brandished a firearm and demanded the clerk give him a beer. Officers have been alerted and chased him to a loading dock. He and the officers fired at one another, leaving three cops wounded.
The one fatality was the teenager, in accordance with the Seattle Occasions.
An inquest jury dominated the capturing was justified, and the officers concerned have been absolved from any prison fees.
Butts’ demise is again within the headlines after a video recorded on an officer’s physique digital camera in January 2021 surfaced. It exhibits a grey reproduction of a tombstone bearing Damarius Butts’ title and date of demise.
The video was launched by legal professional Braden Pence, who secured it throughout a separate and non-related lawsuit towards the SPD. He mentioned whereas the video had nothing to do together with his case, he thought it was essential to indicate what “disturbing trophies and iconography” the police stored on show.
This mock tombstone was noticed on a shelf in a break room of the precinct. On the tombstone was a raised Black energy clenched fist, probably mocking the Black Lives Matter motion, which gained prominence for addressing police-related brutality towards people of colour.
“I can’t specific how hurtful it was to be taught that SPD endorsed joking concerning the killing of my son by displaying a pretend tombstone together with his title on it,” Ann Butts mentioned in an announcement by way of her lawyer, former King County public defender, La Rond Baker.
Along with the pretend grave marker, the officers additionally hoisted on the wall an enormous “Trump 2020” flag.
Considerations are being raised concerning the propriety of displaying Butts’ tombstone and the legality of displaying a politician’s marketing campaign banner within the workspace.
Authorized specialists counsel that having the Trump flag up would possibly violate state legal guidelines and division insurance policies that govern officers’ engagement in partisan political actions whereas on obligation.
Additionally current was an indication that mentioned: “Cease Killing Us.”
The division launched an announcement that famous it had no thought how the “merchandise ended up on storage shelving.”
“We now have no cause to imagine it was positioned as a ‘trophy’ or with any pejorative intent,” the SPD mentioned.
A spokesperson defined that people who understand BLM as being towards the police usually positioned gadgets that commemorated cases of native and nationwide use of drive across the precinct. They added that it’s not shocking that such gadgets would find yourself on the shelf.
The precinct has confirmed the gadgets have been eliminated.
