Washington
Federal judge ends 13-year oversight of Seattle Police Department
SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge returned full control of policing practices to the Seattle Police Department on Wednesday, after overseeing 13 years of reforms prompted by a U.S. Justice Department investigation that found the city’s officers were too quick to use force.
The city entered into a consent decree with the DOJ in 2012, under which it overhauled virtually every aspect of how the police department operated, including use of force, crisis intervention, police stops and detentions, crowd control, and the supervision of officers.
During a hearing Wednesday, Judge James Robart approved the city’s unopposed motion to terminate the consent decree. The ruling marks a new chapter for the department by giving it full autonomy over policing decisions.
In a statement, the DOJ described the development as “successful completion” of the consent decree. Teal Luthy Miller, the acting U.S. attorney in Seattle, said the reforms had “transformed the department into an example for other police forces.”
The DOJ launched the investigation in response to calls from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and other groups outraged over uses of force by officers.
Robart noted in his ruling Wednesday the most notable case, the fatal Aug. 30, 2010, shooting of Native American woodcarver John T. Williams. He crossed the street in front of a police cruiser while carrying a small knife. The officer ordered Williams to put down the knife, and shot him less than 5 seconds later.
“We are a much-improved department for going through this process,” Brian Maxey, the department’s chief operations officer, said in a written statement. “The Consent Decree created internal systems of ‘critical review’ for our employees – they know what they are doing and are accountable.”
Along the way, the department expanded training in de-escalation tactics, mandated body-worn cameras, and diverted certain 911 calls such as overdoses to involve civilian first responders.
Most federal oversight of the department ended in 2023, after Robart ruled the agency was in compliance with most of the agreement. The court retained jurisdiction over how the department handled crowd control, but in February, the city council passed a law setting new guidelines for its crowd-management practices, including restrictions on the use of blast balls, that satisfied the court and set the stage for ending the consent decree.
Idaho
Attorney general says officers who fatally shot intellectually disabled teen won’t be charged
Four Idaho police officers who fatally shot an autistic, nonverbal teenage boy who was holding a knife on the other side of a chain-link fence in April were justified in their actions and will not face criminal charges, the state attorney general said Wednesday.
Victor Perez, 17, was in a coma for a week before dying April 12 after doctors removed nine bullets during several surgeries and amputated his leg. The shooting in southeast Idaho city of Pocatello, which was captured on video, drew outrage from members of the community who questioned why the officers opened fire within 12 seconds of exiting their vehicles.
The Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office asked Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador to review the case to determine whether the officers committed a crime and if their use of force was justified. Labrador said the investigation showed that the officers did not know Perez’s age or disabilities, and they were only told an intoxicated man was threatening people with a knife.
“Believing that individuals were in danger of being stabbed, the officers chose to run toward the fence in case the officers needed to take immediate action to protect others from harm,” he said in a letter to the prosecutor. “The officers’ decision to place themselves at the fence to protect others made the officers vulnerable to a knife attack from someone standing immediately on the other side of the fence.
“Under Idaho law, the officers did not have a duty to retreat from the fence before using deadly force,” Labrador said. These factors would make a criminal prosecution untenable, so they will not file charges against the officers, he said.
Ben Nisenbaum, an Oakland, California, lawyer representing the family in a wrongful death claim against the city of Pocatello, said the family was deeply disappointed by the attorney general’s decision, arguing that the officers had a duty to retreat.
“At the end of the day, anyone responding to that situation would know he was developmentally disabled by the way he was acting. It was obvious,” Nisenbaum told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “Stepping away was what a reasonable person would do.”
Email and phone messages seeking comment from Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei about the attorney general’s decision and whether the officers faced discipline were not immediately returned.
Perez, who is autistic, has an abnormal gait and other medical conditions had managed to get ahold of a large kitchen knife on April 5 and was walking around the yard swinging it.
Video shows his grandfather, mother and 16-year-old sister trying to take it from him.
A person who saw the struggle called 911, saying it appeared the person was intoxicated and was trying to stab people. Three officers arrived and approached the backyard carrying Glock handguns, and a fourth officer had a beanbag shotgun. The sister waved her arms at the officers and shouted, but they focused their attention on Perez, who was lying on the ground, the attorney general’s letter said.
They shouted for Perez to drop the knife, and he got up on his knees. He pointed the blade to the sky as he fell forward, catching himself with his hand. He stood up and stepped toward the officers and they opened fire — releasing fourteen bullets and a beanbag shot. Investigators estimated the distance between them and Perez was about 12 feet (3.6 meters).
The Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force investigated the shooting. The autopsy said the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. The officers gave interviews to the task force, but they declined to speak with the attorney general’s office, the letter said. Instead, they sent audio recordings and transcripts of interviews they gave to a third party, the letter said.
After reviewing the material collected, the attorney general said they won’t file criminal charges against the officers “because the state would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers’ use of force was not justified.”
Illinois
Appeals court approves ban on carrying firearms on public transit
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A federal appeals court has approved Illinois’ ban on carrying firearms on public transit, reversing a lower court decision that found the prohibition violated the Second Amendment.
The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals delivered its opinion on Tuesday. Judge Joshua Kolar wrote in the majority opinion for a three-judge panel that the Illinois restriction “is comfortably situated in a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded, confined places.”
In August 2024, the Rockford-based U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled in favor of four plaintiffs who argued that prohibiting guns on public buses and trains was unconstitutional. It relied on a pivotal 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Bruen that decreed that restrictions on carrying guns in public must be “relevantly similar,” or consistent, with conditions that existed in the late 18th century when the Bill of Rights was composed. It said there were no analogous conditions that justified the transit ban.
The appeals court found the ban appropriate.
“We are asked whether the state may temporarily disarm its citizens as they travel in crowded and confined metal tubes unlike anything the founders envisioned,” Kolar wrote.
“We draw from the lessons of our nation’s historical regulatory traditions and find no Second Amendment violation in such a regulation.”
The public transit ban was imposed in 2013 when Illinois became the last state in the nation to OK carrying concealed weapons in public. In addition to buses and trains, it nixed gun possession in places such as public arenas and hospitals.
Joining in the majority opinion with Kolar, who was named to the court by President Joe Biden in 2024, was Judge Kenneth Ripple, appointed in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.
Writing a separate concurring opinion was Judge Amy St. Eve, tabbed for the court in 2018 by President Donald Trump.
Wisconsin
4 former hotel workers get probation and time served in dogpile death
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A judge sentenced four former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man in a suffocating dogpile to a mix of probation and time served Wednesday, sparing them any more time behind bars.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Swanson handed down the sentences in D’Vontaye Mitchell’s June 2024 death during a series of hearings that lasted all day. The orders bring an end to a case that drew comparisons to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
The judge ordered former Hyatt security guard Todd Erickson to serve two years in prison but stayed the sentence and placed him probation for two years. Another former security guard, Brandon Turner, got a year in prison but Swanson stayed that sentence, too, and placed him on probation for a year.
Former bellhop Herbert Williamson was sentenced to 10 days in jail with credit for 10 days already served. Former front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson was ordered to serve four days in jail with credit for four days already served.
Attorneys for Erickson, Turner and Williamson didn’t immediately return messages. Johnson-Carson’s attorney, Craig Robert Johnson, said in an email to The Associated Press that the sentence was appropriate given that Johnson-Carson was trying to protect hotel guests and staff and never intended to seriously injure Mitchell.
According to investigators, Mitchell ran into the Hyatt’s lobby and went into the women’s bathroom. Two women later told detectives that Mitchell tried to lock them in the bathroom.
Turner pulled Mitchell out of the bathroom and together with a guest dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Turner, Erickson, Williamson and Johnson-Carson struggled with Mitchell before taking him to the ground and piling on top of him.
Hotel surveillance video shows Johnson-Carson holding Mitchell’s legs while Erickson, Turner and Williamson held down his upper body. They kept him pinned for eight to nine minutes. By the time emergency responders arrived, Mitchell had stopped breathing.
A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, finding that Mitchell’s immediate cause of death was suffocation and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine.
Prosecutors initially charged all four employees with being a party to felony murder. Turner and Erickson both pleaded guilty to that count. Williamson and Johnson-Carson pleaded guilty to a reduced count of misdemeanor battery.
Attorneys for Mitchell’s family likened his death to the murder of Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked a national reckoning on racial relations.
Mitchell was Black. Court records identify Erickson as white and Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson as Black.
The workers told investigators that Mitchell was strong and tried to bite Erickson, but they didn’t mean to hurt him. Ambridge Hospitality, the company that manages the Hyatt, fired all four of them.
Mitchell’s family reached a confidential settlement with Hyatt.
Federal judge ends 13-year oversight of Seattle Police Department
SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge returned full control of policing practices to the Seattle Police Department on Wednesday, after overseeing 13 years of reforms prompted by a U.S. Justice Department investigation that found the city’s officers were too quick to use force.
The city entered into a consent decree with the DOJ in 2012, under which it overhauled virtually every aspect of how the police department operated, including use of force, crisis intervention, police stops and detentions, crowd control, and the supervision of officers.
During a hearing Wednesday, Judge James Robart approved the city’s unopposed motion to terminate the consent decree. The ruling marks a new chapter for the department by giving it full autonomy over policing decisions.
In a statement, the DOJ described the development as “successful completion” of the consent decree. Teal Luthy Miller, the acting U.S. attorney in Seattle, said the reforms had “transformed the department into an example for other police forces.”
The DOJ launched the investigation in response to calls from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and other groups outraged over uses of force by officers.
Robart noted in his ruling Wednesday the most notable case, the fatal Aug. 30, 2010, shooting of Native American woodcarver John T. Williams. He crossed the street in front of a police cruiser while carrying a small knife. The officer ordered Williams to put down the knife, and shot him less than 5 seconds later.
“We are a much-improved department for going through this process,” Brian Maxey, the department’s chief operations officer, said in a written statement. “The Consent Decree created internal systems of ‘critical review’ for our employees – they know what they are doing and are accountable.”
Along the way, the department expanded training in de-escalation tactics, mandated body-worn cameras, and diverted certain 911 calls such as overdoses to involve civilian first responders.
Most federal oversight of the department ended in 2023, after Robart ruled the agency was in compliance with most of the agreement. The court retained jurisdiction over how the department handled crowd control, but in February, the city council passed a law setting new guidelines for its crowd-management practices, including restrictions on the use of blast balls, that satisfied the court and set the stage for ending the consent decree.
Idaho
Attorney general says officers who fatally shot intellectually disabled teen won’t be charged
Four Idaho police officers who fatally shot an autistic, nonverbal teenage boy who was holding a knife on the other side of a chain-link fence in April were justified in their actions and will not face criminal charges, the state attorney general said Wednesday.
Victor Perez, 17, was in a coma for a week before dying April 12 after doctors removed nine bullets during several surgeries and amputated his leg. The shooting in southeast Idaho city of Pocatello, which was captured on video, drew outrage from members of the community who questioned why the officers opened fire within 12 seconds of exiting their vehicles.
The Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office asked Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador to review the case to determine whether the officers committed a crime and if their use of force was justified. Labrador said the investigation showed that the officers did not know Perez’s age or disabilities, and they were only told an intoxicated man was threatening people with a knife.
“Believing that individuals were in danger of being stabbed, the officers chose to run toward the fence in case the officers needed to take immediate action to protect others from harm,” he said in a letter to the prosecutor. “The officers’ decision to place themselves at the fence to protect others made the officers vulnerable to a knife attack from someone standing immediately on the other side of the fence.
“Under Idaho law, the officers did not have a duty to retreat from the fence before using deadly force,” Labrador said. These factors would make a criminal prosecution untenable, so they will not file charges against the officers, he said.
Ben Nisenbaum, an Oakland, California, lawyer representing the family in a wrongful death claim against the city of Pocatello, said the family was deeply disappointed by the attorney general’s decision, arguing that the officers had a duty to retreat.
“At the end of the day, anyone responding to that situation would know he was developmentally disabled by the way he was acting. It was obvious,” Nisenbaum told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “Stepping away was what a reasonable person would do.”
Email and phone messages seeking comment from Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei about the attorney general’s decision and whether the officers faced discipline were not immediately returned.
Perez, who is autistic, has an abnormal gait and other medical conditions had managed to get ahold of a large kitchen knife on April 5 and was walking around the yard swinging it.
Video shows his grandfather, mother and 16-year-old sister trying to take it from him.
A person who saw the struggle called 911, saying it appeared the person was intoxicated and was trying to stab people. Three officers arrived and approached the backyard carrying Glock handguns, and a fourth officer had a beanbag shotgun. The sister waved her arms at the officers and shouted, but they focused their attention on Perez, who was lying on the ground, the attorney general’s letter said.
They shouted for Perez to drop the knife, and he got up on his knees. He pointed the blade to the sky as he fell forward, catching himself with his hand. He stood up and stepped toward the officers and they opened fire — releasing fourteen bullets and a beanbag shot. Investigators estimated the distance between them and Perez was about 12 feet (3.6 meters).
The Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force investigated the shooting. The autopsy said the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. The officers gave interviews to the task force, but they declined to speak with the attorney general’s office, the letter said. Instead, they sent audio recordings and transcripts of interviews they gave to a third party, the letter said.
After reviewing the material collected, the attorney general said they won’t file criminal charges against the officers “because the state would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers’ use of force was not justified.”
Illinois
Appeals court approves ban on carrying firearms on public transit
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A federal appeals court has approved Illinois’ ban on carrying firearms on public transit, reversing a lower court decision that found the prohibition violated the Second Amendment.
The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals delivered its opinion on Tuesday. Judge Joshua Kolar wrote in the majority opinion for a three-judge panel that the Illinois restriction “is comfortably situated in a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded, confined places.”
In August 2024, the Rockford-based U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled in favor of four plaintiffs who argued that prohibiting guns on public buses and trains was unconstitutional. It relied on a pivotal 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Bruen that decreed that restrictions on carrying guns in public must be “relevantly similar,” or consistent, with conditions that existed in the late 18th century when the Bill of Rights was composed. It said there were no analogous conditions that justified the transit ban.
The appeals court found the ban appropriate.
“We are asked whether the state may temporarily disarm its citizens as they travel in crowded and confined metal tubes unlike anything the founders envisioned,” Kolar wrote.
“We draw from the lessons of our nation’s historical regulatory traditions and find no Second Amendment violation in such a regulation.”
The public transit ban was imposed in 2013 when Illinois became the last state in the nation to OK carrying concealed weapons in public. In addition to buses and trains, it nixed gun possession in places such as public arenas and hospitals.
Joining in the majority opinion with Kolar, who was named to the court by President Joe Biden in 2024, was Judge Kenneth Ripple, appointed in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.
Writing a separate concurring opinion was Judge Amy St. Eve, tabbed for the court in 2018 by President Donald Trump.
Wisconsin
4 former hotel workers get probation and time served in dogpile death
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A judge sentenced four former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man in a suffocating dogpile to a mix of probation and time served Wednesday, sparing them any more time behind bars.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Swanson handed down the sentences in D’Vontaye Mitchell’s June 2024 death during a series of hearings that lasted all day. The orders bring an end to a case that drew comparisons to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
The judge ordered former Hyatt security guard Todd Erickson to serve two years in prison but stayed the sentence and placed him probation for two years. Another former security guard, Brandon Turner, got a year in prison but Swanson stayed that sentence, too, and placed him on probation for a year.
Former bellhop Herbert Williamson was sentenced to 10 days in jail with credit for 10 days already served. Former front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson was ordered to serve four days in jail with credit for four days already served.
Attorneys for Erickson, Turner and Williamson didn’t immediately return messages. Johnson-Carson’s attorney, Craig Robert Johnson, said in an email to The Associated Press that the sentence was appropriate given that Johnson-Carson was trying to protect hotel guests and staff and never intended to seriously injure Mitchell.
According to investigators, Mitchell ran into the Hyatt’s lobby and went into the women’s bathroom. Two women later told detectives that Mitchell tried to lock them in the bathroom.
Turner pulled Mitchell out of the bathroom and together with a guest dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Turner, Erickson, Williamson and Johnson-Carson struggled with Mitchell before taking him to the ground and piling on top of him.
Hotel surveillance video shows Johnson-Carson holding Mitchell’s legs while Erickson, Turner and Williamson held down his upper body. They kept him pinned for eight to nine minutes. By the time emergency responders arrived, Mitchell had stopped breathing.
A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, finding that Mitchell’s immediate cause of death was suffocation and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine.
Prosecutors initially charged all four employees with being a party to felony murder. Turner and Erickson both pleaded guilty to that count. Williamson and Johnson-Carson pleaded guilty to a reduced count of misdemeanor battery.
Attorneys for Mitchell’s family likened his death to the murder of Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked a national reckoning on racial relations.
Mitchell was Black. Court records identify Erickson as white and Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson as Black.
The workers told investigators that Mitchell was strong and tried to bite Erickson, but they didn’t mean to hurt him. Ambridge Hospitality, the company that manages the Hyatt, fired all four of them.
Mitchell’s family reached a confidential settlement with Hyatt.
