Police chief vows 'thorough' probe into fatal shooting: 'We'll go where the truth takes us'

SEATTLE -- Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole said Monday there will be a "comprehensive, thorough" investigation into the fatal shooting of a knife-wielding pregnant woman by police and "we'll go where the truth takes us."

In an interview late Monday afternoon with Q13 News reporter Brandi Kruse, O'Toole called the shooting on Sunday of Charleena Lyles, a pregnant mother of three, "a horrible tragedy."

Two officers had gone to Lyles' apartment on Sunday after she reported a burglary. She confronted them with a knife, authorities said.

An audio recording of the encounter released by police indicates the officers spent about two minutes calmly speaking with Lyles before the situation escalated in the span of a few seconds.

"Get back! Get back!" an officer says, and a woman's voice responds, "Do it! Do it!" An officer radios "We need help!" and the police say "Get back!" again three more times before five gunshots are heard.

O'Toole, in the Q13 News interview, said, "My heart breaks for her family, for the community, and for our officers. We're working so hard on building community trust. We're working so hard on complicated issues like mental health crisis intervention. and this is huge setback for all of us....

"We'll go where the truth takes us. We'll do a comprehensive, thorough investigation. We'll keep the community and family informed all the way through this process. And in the end, I hope we can all learn something from this -- this very horrible tragedy."



The video of the full interview is above: