Relatives of men killed by police speak out

Relatives of men killed in recent high-profile police shootings condemned alleged police brutality yesterday during a rally at the spot where a Seattle police officer shot and killed Aaron Roberts earlier this year.

More than 100 people gathered at 23rd Avenue and East Union Street, where Roberts was fatally shot May 31 by Officer Craig Price during a traffic stop in which police said Officer Greg Neubert was dragged by Roberts' Cadillac.

Roberts and most of the other men who died were black, and their deaths created racial tension between the African-American community and the Seattle Police Department.

The protesters, many dressed in black and carrying cardboard headstones with pictures of people killed by police, marched to Westlake Center, pausing for a short rally in front of the Police Department's East Precinct.

"There's nothing we can do to bring him back, but we can still march in his name," Howard Walker said of his brother, David John Walker, a mentally ill man whom police fatally shot last year as he led officers on a foot chase through Seattle's Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.

Eric Roberts, brother of Aaron Roberts, said he was there to raise awareness of police brutality. "The system, it has to be changed," he said. "Right now, (police) are not held accountable."

A King County District Court inquest jury this month voted nearly unanimously in favor of the police account of the Roberts shooting. Most important, the panel agreed unanimously that Neubert and Price feared for their lives.

King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng is expected to announce this week whether the officers will face legal action. The Police Department is finishing its internal investigation and is expected to announce in a week or two its ruling on whether the shooting was justified.

Also present at the march were Ophelia Ealy, mother of Michael Ealy, who died while being restrained by Seattle police and paramedics during a struggle in late 1998; Ivan Morgan, father of Joshua Morgan, a mentally ill man who died while being subdued by King County sheriff's deputies in Renton this year; Althea Bradford, the cousin of Demetrius DuBose, whom San Diego police killed after a break-in two years ago; and Anthony Boyd, the father of Kenneth Boyd, whom Tacoma police fatally shot in January 1999.

In conjunction with the rally, the People's Coalition for Justice, a Seattle-based group, said it sent a letter to Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, the City Council and Mayor Paul Schell, demanding that Neubert and Price be removed from the Central Area immediately. It also asked the Police Department to place only veteran officers in that neighborhood, home to many African Americans.

The Police Department yesterday said Price and Neubert likely are not going to return to patrol the Central Area, at least not soon. Price has been assigned to the department's Harbor Patrol. Neubert is on leave, serving active duty with the Air Force Reserve. There's no way to know when that service will end, and the department has not decided where he will be assigned when he returns, spokesman Duane Fish said.

The department declined to respond specifically to the demands and charges the activists made yesterday.

Nicole Tsong can be reached at 206-464-2793 or ntsong@seattletimes.com. Ian Ith can be reached at 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com.