SEATTLE – The City of Seattle has been hit with a $10 million lawsuit as police defunding and an internal city policy are blamed for causing the wrongful death of 46-year-old William Yurek in 2021 as his teen son frantically sought help.
Yurek’s death occurred on November 2, 2021. His 13-year-old son Drew called 911 because the man was experiencing chest pains and had difficulty breathing. The family’s address remained on an outdated blacklist for hostility to first responders due to a previous resident. Any location on the blacklist required police entry to secure the scene prior to other first responders entering, per Seattle policy, the Post Millennial reported.
However, radical politics in the Pacific Northwest left the city shorthanded of officers following police defunding actions taken by the Seattle City Council. As a result, no officers were available when the 13-year-old summoned medical help, and he watched his father die.
According to the civil action, “The Seattle Police Department (“SPD”) was severely understaffed at the time of this incident due to fallout from the abandonment of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, a.k.a. ‘CHOP,’ a perceived lack of support from the city, vaccine mandates, and other factors, including city mismanagement.”
According to 911 tapes, Drew called and said, “My dad I don’t know, he can’t breathe or something. He’s not okay. I think he’s having a heart attack or something. He’s making this weird noise from his throat. A gurgling noise.”
Yurek’s son waited for help to arrive, but no one came. Finally, after 14 minutes transpired, he called 911 a second time.
Mark Lindquist is the lawyer who is representing Yurek’s family. He told Talk Radio 570 KVI that the 911 dispatcher informed the teen that help was on the way. In actuality, EMS had been staging outside the home waiting for police to arrive due to “blacklist” protocols.
“Lives literally depend on the accuracy of this list and in this case, Mr. Yurek was on their blacklist and he shouldn’t have been.” Lindquist said, noting that others have mistakenly been on the list as well.
“Despite this well-known staffing shortage at SPD, Defendant continues to use the blacklist and ‘caution notes’ that required medics to wait for a police escort,” the lawsuit reads.
Finally, EMS responders who were on scene six minutes after the original 911 call decided to enter the apartment without police assistance. This took place four minutes after the second 911 call and 20 minutes after the first call to 911.
However, the delayed response proved costly and Yurek died of cardiac arrest in front of his son, the Post Millennial reported.
“Medical experts believe Mr. Yurek had a high likelihood of survival if medics had treated him as soon as they arrived,” the lawsuit alleges.
Beyond damages that are sought, Lindquist said the family hopes to reform the methods for maintaining a blacklist since “people’s lives depend upon it. It has to be accurate; it has to be up to date.”
Drew’s mother, Meagan Petersen, who was divorced from William and living in Utah, said last year, “People need to know how the city let this happen. They could have saved Will if the system was working like it should.”
