SEATTLE (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Western Washington says she’ll take a hard look at recent incidents involving the use of force by Seattle police.
Seattle U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan told The Seattle Times the cases warrant “close scrutiny” and that her office will investigate if the facts demand it.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and other groups are calling on the Justice Department to conduct a broad civil-rights investigation of the Seattle Police Department following the release of a surveillance video that shows an undercover officer kicking a 17-year-old African-American boy several times during an arrest at a downtown convenience store Oct. 18. The officer was responding to a report of an assault on other officers in the area.
That arrest followed fatal shooting in August of a First Nations carver by an officer at a downtown intersection. The department’s Firearms Review Board has preliminarily found that shooting unjustified.
