Court rules against Seattle officers seeking immunity in 2019 shooting

SEATTLE – A panel of judges at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals won’t dismiss key elements of a lawsuit filed against two Seattle police officers who shot and killed an Uptown man in 2019, upholding a finding that the officers had no reason to believe he posed an imminent threat when they killed him.

The unanimous ruling, published earlier this week, turned aside an appeal by the city of Seattle and police officers Christopher Myers and Ryan Beecroft, upholding a 2023 trial court order refusing to grant the officers qualified immunity for shooting 31-year-old Ryan Smith after kicking in the door of his Uptown apartment. Smith, who was depressed, intoxicated and suffering from a mental crisis, was holding a pocketknife at the time.

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects public employees from lawsuits alleging they violated someone’s civil rights unless it can be shown that the right was “clearly established” at the time.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly, the trial judge, wrote in a Dec. 21, 2023, order that “when Smith was fatally shot, the law has been ‘clearly established’ that law enforcement personnel ‘may not kill suspects who do not pose an immediate threat to their safety or to the safety of others simply because (the suspects) are armed.’ ”

The judge went on to point out that “factual disputes exist” over whether officers could have used less-lethal means to subdue Smith – three of the four officers, including Myers, were carrying Tasers, according to court documents.

The Seattle City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The city rarely comments publicly on pending litigation.

The officers were dispatched on the evening of May 8, 2019, to a 911 call made by Smith’s girlfriend, who said he was threatening to kill himself and her, that he had a knife and that she had barricaded herself in the bathroom. Four officers responded , including Myers and Beecroft.

The court noted Beecroft and another officer had responded to the apartment a month earlier on a domestic violence call. During that encounter, Beecroft spoke to Smith and, according to the other officer, had built an “awesome” rapport with him. No arrest was made at the time.

The night of May 8, however, the four officers gathered outside the door of the apartment. After announcing themselves, according to court filings, Beecroft kicked down the door and all four officers started yelling at Smith, who, standing in the hallway roughly 5 feet away, was holding the knife down by his side.

“Over the span of approximately five seconds, the officers shouted overlapping commands,” ordering him to drop the knife, get on the ground and show his hands, wrote 9th Circuit Court Judge William Fletcher for the three-member panel. The court noted Smith was “half-naked” and was 5-foot-7 and 143 pounds.

Citing the video, the appeals court found there is evidence to support an argument that “Smith stopped after taking a few steps forward and began to comply with the command to put his hands up.”

“None of the officers deployed their Tasers. None of the officers warned Smith that they were about to use deadly force,” Fletcher wrote, noting “Myers began shooting a little less than six seconds after Beecroft kicked down the door.”

The court concluded a reasonable juror could find that Smith didn’t pose a threat to the officers or his girlfriend, who was barricaded in another room. The officers, in statements made to investigators, said they believed based on the information they had received from dispatchers that the woman’s life was in danger.

Smith’s mother, Rose Johnson, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging excessive use of force against the officers and the city in 2022, after Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability cleared the officers of SPD policy violations. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office last year determined the officers were legally justified and declined to file charges.