Officers with the Seattle Police Department were no strangers to Unit 4303 in the Brettler Family Place apartment complex in the northeast part of the city. After they responded to at least three domestic violence calls there in the past year, the police were dispatched there again on Sunday morning to investigate a theft in Charleena Lyles’s unit.

Ms. Lyles greeted them at her front door, let them inside and then calmly explained that an Xbox video game console was stolen and a bag of clothes on her bed looked to have been disturbed, according to an audio recording of the officers. But after an officer repeated out loud what was stolen, the encounter suddenly escalated after the two officers present said they saw Ms. Lyles, 30, clutching a knife, the police said.

“Get back, get back, get back!” an officer yelled.

“Get ready,” Ms. Lyles responded, using an expletive.

“Tase her,” the other officer instructed his partner, but neither officer had a Taser.

Seconds later, the officers fired at least five shots, killing Ms. Lyles, as three of her four children were in the apartment. The family said she was pregnant.