Seattle cops killed their son and the inquest, they said, was ‘a joke’

For Michael and Dianne Murphy of Maple Valley, the inquest examining their son’s death left them completely disillusioned. “It was a joke,” Michael said. Eight years later, the death of Charleena Lyles at the hands of Seattle police will likely result in an inquest — and new attempts to understand and scrutinize the inquest process. Police shot Lyles in her apartment last month. They said she threatened them with a knife. In Washington state, only King County holds inquests to investigate shootings by officers. Supporters say inquests provide transparency around the facts of the case. Critics say the most urgent questions are never asked or answered. On New Year’s Day 2009, the Murphys received a phone call from Harborview Medical Center. Their son Miles, a 22-year-old student at the University of Washington, was dead. Miles was a history buff who owned historic uniforms and guns. He and some friends celebrated New Year’s Eve by firing a rifle topped with a bayonet — it was loaded with blanks. A neighbor called the police. One of the responding officers shot Miles, saying he refused commands to drop the gun. But the Murphys said it was agonizingly difficult to piece those events together.

“Miles had been admitted to the hospital about 3 a.m.,” Dianne said. “He’d been in surgery for five hours. The time they called me was shortly after he’d passed away. So there was all that time that someone could have called us and we could have been at the hospital while he was still alive. "They didn’t come straight out and tell us he’d been shot by the police. I think they told us to call the police and they gave us a card. And I called, standing there next to our son’s body … and I think they told us we could come down to the station. Michael said, ‘No, we’re here with our son. You come to us.’ So they did. Two detectives came to the hospital.” “Even when we’re talking to the detectives, initially, they’re already circling the wagons,” Michael said. “They’re not going to give us any information. They’re treating us like we’re against them, like enemies, while we had full faith and trust in them.” The Murphys said they expected the inquest to shed light on Miles’ death. “I didn’t want to come out against the police before the inquest,” Dianne said. “We were being fair. You know, we just wanted to wait and see. Let the process happen. And now looking back, sometimes I really regret that.”

Michael said he was waiting to see the officers involved take the stand and answer questions. "That’s really what I was looking forward to," he said. "The police and the city attorney asked them all these questions and they had all the answers, they were very calm, just like this. Then our attorneys got a chance to ask questions. All of a sudden, ‘Oh, I can’t recall. I can’t recall. I can’t recall.’” “It was a joke to me,” Michael said. “This is going from having full faith in the process and the justice system. It was a joke.” Dianne said they hesitated to criticize the inquest process publicly or speak about Miles’ death and the investigation. They said, in part that was because they realized nothing they did could bring him back. And there was their college-age daughter to consider. After they received the news of his death, they drove to Bellingham to pick her up. On the drive, Dianne said, she and Michael made a pact to focus their energies on being good parents to her. Seattle Police Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey said he wasn't familiar with the Murphys' case. But he said in an email that the department's investigations in such incidents have changed dramatically in the past five years.

He said that after an investigation by the department's Force Investigations team, the Force Review Board "critically reviews not only whether the use of force was within policy, but also examines tactics, training and equipment." He said the review is conducted under observation by the Office of Professional Accountability, the Department of Justice and others. "The purpose is not just to judge the incident, but to always learn from it whether or not it was within policy," Maxey wrote. Attorneys for police officers and for families of the deceased agree on one thing: Inquests are stressful for everyone involved. Derrick Isackson is a lawyer in Seattle who represents police officers and their unions.

“Any time that an officer has had to use force that resulted in someone’s death, it’s very difficult for that officer,” he said. “They’re essentially having to re-live that in open court in front of the public, in front of a jury, and they have to provide them with that information." This replay of events is why King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg believes in inquests. Satterberg addressed the process before a gathering in January of the group Not This Time, created in the wake of the shooting of Che Taylor by Seattle police in 2016. “The investigation is revealed in open court where anybody can watch it,” he said. “I will defend that process as superior to one that happens entirely on paper.” At the inquest, a jury answers dozens of questions about the circumstances of the person’s death, including whether officers feared for their safety (read an example of court interrogatories). The findings go to the prosecutor to determine potential criminal charges and may be used in civil lawsuits. But families of the deceased have come away surprised that their most urgent questions aren’t allowed.