SEATTLE — A suicidal man who urged a Seattle police officer to kill him as he approached with a large knife was fatally shot as he ignored commands to stop, video shows.
A Port of Seattle officer alerted the Seattle Police Department late Tuesday that a “suicidal subject” had a knife to his neck near the city’s waterfront, according to audio of the police call released Wednesday.
The armed man then cut himself while walking along Alaskan Way and Seneca Street, the officer told dispatchers.
When additional officers arrived shortly after, bodycam footage then shows Seattle Police Department officers encountering the man as he wielded a knife while walking past Pier 56, New York Post reported.
“There he is, there he is, stop,” one officer says. “Hold on, watch out – he’s got a knife.”
The officer then jumps out of his police cruiser and orders the man to stop walking and put down the weapon, but he ignores the commands – and tells the officer to shoot him.
“Just do it, just do it,” the man says on the harrowing clip. “Do it, do it — please kill me.”
The man was then shot just feet away from the officer as he held the large kitchen knife above his head. The bloodied weapon was later recovered from the scene, where the victim was pronounced dead, police said.
Seattle police said Wednesday that Port of Seattle police officers tried to use less-lethal options prior to the fatal shooting but they were ineffective. It was unclear what actions were taken, the Seattle Times reported.
The victim had not been identified by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office as of early Thursday, according to the news organization.
The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave as a probe into the OIS is ongoing, the Seattle Times reported.
