A King County inquest into the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old Kent man by Seattle Police has been changed to Jan. 24 through Feb. 4.
The inquest into the 2017 killing of Damarius Butts will be done by Zoom and run from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, according to the King County Inquest Program.
Inquest Administrator Michael Spearman last month had set dates of Dec. 6-17 for the inquest, but said those dates could change. Spearman denied a motion from a Nov. 12 pre-inquest conference by attorneys from both sides to continue the inquest to March.
The initial December dates also had the inquest scheduled for the King County Courthouse rather than on Zoom.
A coroner’s inquest is required by King County law anytime a police officer kills somebody in the line of duty. The purpose of the inquest is to shed light on the facts surrounding a killing at the hands of law enforcement, according to the county website. A jury will render verdicts setting out who was killed, as well as when, where, how, by whom, whether the killing was by criminal means, and to make relevant factual determinations including, but not limited to, whether the law enforcement officers complied with training and policy.
The inquest process, which had its last case in December 2017 (Kent Police shooting of Giovonn Joseph-McDade), began again under the new guidelines with a pre-conference hearing Oct. 19 about the Butts case. Families of shooting victims had complained publicly that the process was weighted too heavily in favor of police.
The Washington State Supreme Court ruled in July in favor of the families of Butts, Charleena Lyles and Isaiah Obet that officers involved in their killings can be compelled to testify at inquests. That ruling put inquests back on the table after the process was tied up in the courts for a couple of years because of a lawsuit filed by the cities of Kent, Auburn, Federal Way and Renton that tried to stop an order by King County Executive Dow Constantine in 2018 to change the inquest process.
Butts was killed April 20, 2017, by police in downtown Seattle after a reported armed robbery by Butts and his 17-year-old sister at a convenience store at 627 First Ave.
A store clerk told police he saw a man grab a 12-pack of beer, donuts and chips and leave without paying, according to court documents. The man had walked into the store with a female. When the pair left the store without paying, the clerk pursued them. The clerk knocked the beer out of the man’s hands, but the two continued to flee. The clerk grabbed the female, but Damarius Butts then displayed a silver pistol inside the area of his waist. The clerk let the girl go, returned to the store and called 911.
Officers responded, chased Butts and cornered him at the Federal Office Building, where gunshots were exchanged, according to police reports. Butts wounded four officers, one critically. Officers recovered a gun near the body of Butts, who died of multiple gunshot wounds.
The Seattle officers who fired shots and are involved in the hearing include Elizabeth Kennedy, Christopher Myers, Joshua Vaaga and Canek Gordillo. They are represented by attorneys Evan Bariault and Ted Buck. Demonta Butts, the mother of Darmarius, is represented by attorneys Adrien Leavitt and La Rond Baker. The Seattle Police Department is represented by attorneys Ghazal Sharifi, Kerala Cowart and Tom Miller.
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