JF is not on my mind. February 18 will be forever ingrained in my mind as the first time I've witnessed a murder. Twenty Seattle Police shot an African American man to death across the street from me. I saw the turn of events from the steps of my house forty yards from the scene. My full statement has been posted here, but probably you'll read my misquotes in the Seattle P-I.

I am completely struck by this awful situation that led to this innocent young man's wrongful death.

Here's the statement I gave to the police (three times, to an officer to get the story, to an officer for an official statement, and a recorded statement to a homicide detective).

I noticed a police siren wailing outside my window. I looked out the window and saw a police car two houses south of my house headed north blocking half of the street. I went downstairs to see what was going on and saw a few of my neighbors talking. I went outside to my front yard and saw two more police behind the first. They turned off the siren and hurried through the sideyard of the house two doors down and into the alley. I went back to the alley. The were standing around so I assumed that a there was no chase (or that they had lost the chase). I went back to the front where I saw my neigbor. He asked me if I saw anything. I looked to the north and saw a gathering of police cars and officers. I told my neighbor to look. I could see that they had found something behind the two houses that are backed by the freeway wall across from my front yard. Some of them pulled out their guns. A couple went behind the houses but fifteen were on the sidewalk with guns drawn. Then I saw a black man come out from behind the houses. He was walking with no hurry. He was carrying a thin black rod. The closest thing that I could liken it to is rebar (metal bars that reinforced concrete). When he got to the middle of the grass yard, he stopped. They shouted "Stop!" and possibly "Put down the weapon!". The closest officer was more than ten feet away. Then he lifted the the rod slightly, below his waist and I heard two shots and then three more shots in rapid succession. He fell to the ground on his back. He then used his elbows to lift his head and shoulders off the ground approximately six inches. He was still on the ground. Then I heard a hail of gunfire, approximately fifteen shots in the time of two seconds.

My better judgement behind, I have posted four pictures of the crime scene taken by my neighbor downstairs, Jay.

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You may suggest that my counting of twenty shots is incorrect, and I agree that likely I heard tasers being fired as well as my ears ringing. What I am sure of is that :

• He was shot before he was able to comply with orders,
• He did not move a step from his last stand,
• He did not raise his weapon,
• He was shot while he was on the ground, completely incapacitated.

My neighbor Don who saw the same event will back me up on most of my story. He will not take interviews with the media as he has seen what has happened to my story.

I have removed all hearsay, speculation, and calculation from my site. If you wish to see it, ask politely and do not use it to ridicule a serious event as the Seattle PI did.

E-mail me if you want a quote or an interview. I've already given my story to Seattle P-I, but I'll give it again if you'd like.

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