Police say security video shows Taylor during his deadly shooting attack in the museum and apartment complex parking lot
The suspect in a deadly shooting shot and killed by Seattle Police Tuesday night in the Central District was a resident and maintenance employee at apartments in the building also home to the Northwest African American Museum whose behavior people familiar with the circumstances say had become more and more threatening.
Wednesday night, SPD released an edited video showing clips from building security video that captured the parking lot shooting that left one person dead and another critically wounded and police body-worn video showing what SPD says is Taylor approaching police on S Massachusetts and raising his gun as officers opened up with a hail of gunfire, killing the Black suspect.
CHS reported here on the Tuesday night gun violence and police shooting outside the the museum and housing complex as 911 callers reported gunfire in the area and multiple police converged at the museum and gunned down the suspect.
Coast Property Management, the regional company that manages the Urban League Village affordable apartments, tells CHS that suspect Gregory Taylor was a resident and had worked for years “cleaning and keeping our grounds tidy.”
“We are heartbroken about this tragedy, and our thoughts and concerns are with the individuals involved and their families,” a statement from Susan Pickering, chief operating officer at Coast Property Management, reads. “We’re limited in what we can share out of respect for the privacy of everyone involved, but we can confirm that Gregory Taylor was a resident at Urban League Village. He also worked at the building about five hours a week cleaning and keeping our grounds tidy, which is a role he held when we took over management of the property in 2018.”
Pickering says Coast Property is working with investigators “to do everything we can to assist in their understanding of what took place.”
Police say their video shows the suspect raising his gun to fire at officers
The victim shot and killed and the second victim who survived the shooting inside their vehicle in the parking lot have not yet been publicly identified but people familiar with the situation have countered SPD’s description that the suspect and victims had “some sort of a relationship,” saying that Taylor’s behavior was increasingly threatening and there had been past incidents of brandishing a firearm.
UPDATE: SPD said Thursday following this CHS report that they were correcting the “previously released information” about a connection between the suspect and the victims:
UPDATE: the department previously released information indicating a possible relationship between the victims & suspect in Tuesday's shooting. As the investigation has progressed, it now appears there is no connection between the victims and the suspect. https://t.co/YLPHWyN8hf
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) February 11, 2021
UPDATE: The Central District’s Omari Salisbury of Converge Media said Thursday morning that the two victims were at the complex with a friend who lived there so he could run in to get his laptop. The young man, the son of a Converge employee, returned to the car to find his friends had been shot. Salisbury called on the community to put thoughts about the victims in front of politics and protests against the police.
Taylor’s past behavior had been reported to police and building management, CHS is told. The company responded with the statement from Pickering when we asked about the concerns. We’ll also follow up with SPD to learn more more about any past incidents with Taylor and residents at the complex.
The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle which developed the project has not responded to CHS inquiries.
The videos released by SPD Wednesday night include chilling audio of the surviving victim talking with 911 dispatchers and Seattle Fire personnel about what had happened and pleading for help for her dying friend.
The killing of a Black man by Seattle Police brought out protesters Tuesday and Wednesday night. The night of the shooting, some community members convinced protesters to leave the scene as police investigators continued to collect and document evidence and interview witnesses. Wednesday, a group gathered in Jimi Hendrix Park before marching to the East Precinct where there was at least one reported arrest.
SPD’s internal force investigation team is reviewing details of the “officer involved” shooting. The Office of Police Accountability and the Office of Inspector General will also conduct concurrent separate investigation. Unlike most jurisdictions in the country, SPD conducts its own internal investigations of these incidents because it is currently restricted under a federal consent decree that shapes its policies. Officers who discharged weapons during the incident are typically placed on paid administrative leave during investigations. The bodycam video was also released under policy requirements.
In the last 10 years, there have been 57 fatal police shootings in Seattle, according to SPD data. 17 — around 30% — involved Black people that officers shot and killed. Seattle’s Black residents make up about 7% of the city’s population.
The most recent fatal police shooting in the East Precinct happened following a 2014 Madison Park bank robbery as police shot and killed the suspect as he fled near Viretta Park.
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Thank you SPD. The use of deadly force is always unfortunate but perfectly justified in this situation.
SPD Doesn’t get to be judge jury and executioner. Police state is fascist and bad precedent. You don’t know all the facts.
You certainly don’t know the facts.
When a person points a firearm at the police that’s exactly what the police get to be. The one needed fact was captured on video. If this man had come around the corner and encountered you, where do you think you would be right now? We may learn more about the troubles Taylor had but right now we know a resident who recognized a dangerous situation picked up the phone and likely saved a woman’s life. RIP Anais Valencia, way too young.
The random nonsense of this guy waving a gun around in public apparently had been going on for weeks. If Seattle could have implemented something like Denver did six months ago, this tragedy might have been avoided. We need better mental health intervention instead of police as a first resort. But in the highly politicized atmosphere in Seattle, open warfare between SPOG and City government, getting sane rational reform seems unlikely.
Denver STAR program <<<< why isn’t Seattle doing this yesterday. Because our Council and our SPD are both incompetent idiots.
Our council spent the same amount of money on a powerpoint presentation ($3 million) from unqualified researchers as Denver did to bootstrap and expand a mental health crisis intervention team. Why do we keep electing a council that is more interested in words rather than actually investing the time required for good governance.
Great suggestion!
How do you know that he had a mental illness? Maybe he was just a murdering criminal.
The killing of a Black man by Seattle Police brought out protesters Tuesday and Wednesday night. The night of the shooting, some community members convinced protesters to leave the scene as police investigators continued to collect and document evidence and interview witnesses. Wednesday, a group gathered in Jimi Hendrix Park before marching to the East Precinct where there was at least one reported arrest.
The guy was a cold-blooded murderer. Y’all gone crazy..
I currently live down across from the park; this was extremely scary and the police reacted quickly and correctly given the unfortunate situation. Why is no one advocating for the victims and woman that was randomly murdered by the SUSPECT? Doesn’t fit the loony narrative, I suppose.
It sickens me that others are revering someone who randomly took innocent lives and had the SPD not arrived when they did, possibly injured or killed others. There are young children living right across the street that could have easily been caught in a crossfire. If I hadn’t had decent motivation to move last week, now I do.
Resident, what loony narrative? Are you saying loonies don’t kill innocent people?
The looney narrative that people blame the police for getting to do the horrible and incredibly dangerous jobs our elected officials force them to do. The looney narrative that somehow the police were going to be able to diagnose Taylor as mentally ill in a split second when the only data point is a gun barrel. Then use skills they don’t possess, cause they were never trained, to deal with mental crisis. The looney narrative that attacking the police is somehow going to help bridge this divide. The looney narrative that thinks the police want to be ones who get to solve these mental health situations. The looney narrative that thinks armed individuals are going to have happy endings unless they do exactly as they are told.
What skills do they possess? Certainly not the skill of aiming at non-fatal areas of the body when the person could be mentally ill.
HAHAHAHAHAHA, yeah, let’s see you take careful aim at a small moving body part at night while under the gun yourself. Geez, you people are idiots!
Cops are trained to shoot center-mass of the torso for two reasons: it’s the least difficult area to hit as it is large and doesn’t flail or swing, and it’s the most likely to induce an incapacitating wound.
They’re also trained to keep shooting until the suspect is down or disarmed, whichever happens first, precisely because handguns are inherently inaccurate and shots do miss from all involved, good and bad guys.
In this case, multiple officers perceived the the threat independently of one another and each acted accordingly. That accounts for the number of shots. When a man with a gun is walking toward them with determination and whips the gun up at them, the cops don’t huddle up, draw straws and decide, “O-K’ Larry, only you shoot; the rest of us will hang back.”
People as incredibility ignorant as you of how such shootings transpire and who make ridiculous criticisms are the same ones who would be huddling in a corner peeing themselves if they were to trade places with any of the cops here.
The video was unreal, I’m sure the dude had mental problems but we DO need police, for that exact scenario. I would much rather have 10 trained cops show up and make the decision than have some vigilante take it into their own hands. If someone was shooting at me while I was in my car I can’t imagine how I would react.
Yep, they think they’re enlightened, but at some point that’s just what they connect with. The cold blooded killer and not the women pleading for her life to be saved. Horrifying. Even driving a Prius wasn’t enough for them.
If we had worked on completely abolishing the police like Nikkita Oliver over many years had suggested, this would never have happened. RIP Greg Taylor!
So if there were no police Mr Taylor would not have shot two women?
Defunding or reallocating resources is one thing but abolishing the police entirely is a flat earth level of ignorance.
Nikita Oliver’s plan addresses mentally ill people with access to firearms and angel dust?
You’re a genius. RIP critical thinking.
Only in Seattle is such a ridiculous concept as abolishing the police being debated as a legitimate policy change. This absurdity undermines and drowns out discussion regarding the best way to reform SPD to prevent systemic racism in policing and provide accountability. There appears to be some sort of ideological brain rot that started on the far right and has now spread to the far left. Unless informed, reasonable progressives start speaking up, the loudest, most extreme voices win and the dream of Cascadia will become the nightmare of Wokistan. This next election is a make or break moment for the city.
damn ya’ll on the real i did not write that comment. somebody is copy and pasting the user name. i def would never say rip that dude.
That footage was disturbing to watch/listen to. I am curious what those two women were doing in the car in that parking lot and the lady that called 911 (one of the victims) said she didn’t know where she was? Such a tragedy all around.
The account above states that they stopped there so that someone that they were with could run into his apartment and grab his laptop… if they drove him there simply following his directions and were just waiting in the parking lot, I can imagine that they might not know the exact address…..
They were from the south end. They did indeed not know where they were exactly. The above post is true. I know the girls in question. Wrong place at the wrong time. They were killed by a man on drugs & having a mental crisis. Who knows his motive. He could of gotten down on the ground & tossed the gun. He did not. The video clearing shows that he had his gun up. Jury is still if he had bullets in the gun. I heard no shots from him outside the shooting of the young girls. Only a full investigation will tell.
Family & friend are devastated by the death of a young girl.
As for Gregg Taylor I just would of hoped he got help and didn’t do this. Why did no one try to get him help? Why did he kill people he didn’t know? 🥲
The laws protecting mentally ill people often prevent us from getting them the help that is needed. They need to be an immediate danger to themselves or someone else – I worked in the system for a long time – someone would be threatening another person with a gun or knife – police would take them into Harborview for a mental health evaluation – the next day or two the person would be out again because they were now not “an immediate danger to themselves or someone else” Those laws NEED to change – defunding the police – reallocating money – WILL NOT CHANGE those laws – This happens repeatedly – I watched it over and over.