Two Seattle police officers who shot and killed a 30-year-old pregnant woman each said in interviews they fired their weapons after the woman suddenly pulled a knife and came after them.

Seattle woman killed by police while children were home after reporting theft Read more

Late on Friday, the Seattle police department released transcripts of interviews with the officers involved in the 18 June shooting of Charleena Lyles, the Seattle Times reported.

The two officers said they had no choice but to use lethal force after Lyles, a mother of four, tried to stab Jason Anderson in the stomach and cornered Steven McNew in the kitchen of her apartment.

Family members, who previously expressed concerns about Lyles’ mental health after she threatened officers with long metal shears less than two weeks before the shooting, question why the officers did not use nonlethal methods to subdue the petite woman and have suggested race played a role. Lyles was black and the officers were white.

The officers responded to the apartment on 18 June after Lyles reported a burglary. Anderson told investigators they were talking to Lyles and he was looking at his notebook when Lyles pulled a knife from about 3 feet away. Anderson told investigators, according to the transcript, that he “was jumping back, uh, kind of sucking my abdomen in trying to avoid getting stabbed in the stomach”.

He added: “Just the look on her face changed completely from when I had been talking to her a second early.”

Anderson said Lyles advanced from around a counter into the kitchen and towards McNew, telling investigators “at that moment I was in, in fear that she was gonna try and kill my partner, um, ’cause she was going after him”, according to the transcript.

“I don’t know at what point she changed her focus from, from me to Steve, um, but as she started turning the corner to go after Steve, that’s when I, um, that’s when I shot.”

McNew told investigators Lyles had him trapped in the kitchen and was closing the distance between them. “And at that point, fearing for what was about to happen, what she would do to me, um, being stuck in that spot, I fired my handgun,” he told investigators, adding that he remembered hearing shots coming from Anderson’s location.

“She hit the floor,” McNew said. “She, I didn’t see her movement, but when she landed on the floor she landed face down.”

Lyles had four children. Three of them – ages 11, four and one – were at home when she called police. After the shooting, McNew said, “one of the little babies crawls out from behind and right on top of her … upper body, you know resting his head against her.”

McNew picked up the child, and a third officer who arrived began giving first aid to Lyles.

Along with the transcripts, police also released images of what appear to be kitchen knives as well as a diagram of Lyles’ apartment.

Anderson told investigators he was not carrying a Taser because the battery had died two weeks earlier. But he said that he would not have used it in that situation because he was trained to use lethal force when being attacked by someone with a knife.

McNew’s transcript is about 29 pages, while Anderson’s transcript is about 60 pages.