Seven years after Seattle police officers shot and killed 31-year-old Ryan Smith inside a Queen Anne apartment, a six-person King County inquest jury ruled Wednesday, July 15, that both officers were legally justified.
The unanimous verdict closes an investigation that spanned more than seven years. Officers Ryan Beecroft and Chris Myers will face no criminal liability for the May 8, 2019, shooting.
What the jury found
All six jurors answered yes when asked whether deadly force was necessary for both Beecroft and Myers, and no when asked whether either officer acted by criminal means, according to KIRO 7. The verdict was unanimous on every question.
One juror told KIRO 7 that the decision "ultimately came down to the perceived posture of Smith and how he was holding the knife."
A second juror said the panel was "not necessarily making a judgment on the shooting but were answering questions of facts posed to them."
What happened on May 8, 2019
Officers responded to a 911 call from a woman who reported her boyfriend was threatening to kill her. Bodycam footage, the only video of the encounter, shows officers kicking in the apartment door.
Smith raised a knife and stepped forward. Both officers fired, striking him multiple times in the neck, shoulder, and torso, according to the King County Use of Force Fatality Report released in May 2024.
SPD Detective Elizabeth Kennedy testified during the inquest, which ran Monday, July 13, through Wednesday, July 15, that neighbors heard the confrontation but no one witnessed the shooting directly. No doorbell cameras existed on neighboring units.
Attending pathologist Dr. Brian Mazrim testified that Smith's injuries would have been "very likely immediately incapacitating."
The accountability trail
The Seattle Office of Police Accountability previously found the deadly force "legal and proper." An SPD administrative review determined officers followed department training and policy.
King County's fatality report classified the death as a homicide, a medical determination that does not imply criminal wrongdoing.
King County's charter requires a coroner's jury to examine facts surrounding any death involving law enforcement and determine whether the use of force constitutes justified homicide. The Smith inquest was the final step in that process.
Rose Johnson, Smith's mother, has maintained that officers should have recognized her son's substance abuse and depression and attempted dialogue before forcing entry.
Johnson said during the inquest that her son dealt with depression and a substance abuse problem, and that police should have tried to engage him through conversation rather than kicking in the door.
What comes next
The inquest verdict is the final step in King County's formal review of Smith's death. No further legal proceedings are scheduled.
District 7 Councilmember Bob Kettle, who chairs the City Council's Public Safety Committee and represents Queen Anne, has not commented on the verdict. On Tuesday, July 14, the council considered Kettle's bill to establish in-field, pre-booking diversion through the LEAD framework as SPD's preferred enforcement method for drug offenses.
