VIDEO: Graphic police shooting footage shows chaotic scene on Seattle's Aurora Ave
The suspect's voice emerges from the chaos, hard to catch upon first listen: “I’m not reaching.”
The video begins with the voice of a female police officer: “We got the whole gang here,” she says.
The mood veers as the man they have pulled over, Iosia Faletogo, bolts from the scene.
Seattle Police released this video on Thursday afternoon, showing dashboard camera and body camera footage from multiple perspectives — from a police vehicle and then from the perspective of each officer at the scene.
This means the shooting repeats itself five times in this video.
At about 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Faletogo sat in a silver sedan outside the Z Food Mart on Aurora Avenue North at 95th Street.
He had been pulled over because the car he was driving had been flagged by the Department of Licensing.
Faletogo bolts from his car, crossing Aurora.
WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO COULD BE UPSETTING TO VIEWERS:
An officer yells, “Hey! Get back in the car.”
The officers catch up to him in seconds.
He holds a silver handgun – police learn later that it was stolen from a 2016 car prowl in Renton.
"You’re gonna get shot,” one shouts, and then, to the other officers: “He’s reaching, he’s reaching.”
“Drop the fucking gun,” an officer says.
And another officer: “Drop the gun. You’re gonna get shot. You're gonna get shot.”
The officers are shouting over each other: “You’re gonna get fucking shot dude.”
Faletogo drops to hands and knees on the sidewalk, and the officers pile on him.
His voice emerges from the chaos, hard to catch upon first listen: “I’m not reaching.”
But a split second later, Officer Jared Keller pulls his handgun and shoots Faletogo, who goes down.
The female officer shrieks. “Shots fired, shots fired,” she says.
“Ah, shit,” an officer says.
Another asks for handcuffs.
Faletogo carried $1,160 in cash and a vial with 263 pills … stamped as oxycodone but actually a mix of fentanyl and acetaminophen (the generic brand of Tylenol).
Keller, who was hired in 2015 and is stationed at North Precinct, was involved in another fatal officer shooting one year ago. In that case, a man led seven officers on a car chase and did not respond to commands to raise his hands.
Detectives from the Seattle Police Force Investigation Team are investigating the Licton Springs neighborhood shooting.
Faletogo’s family is holding a press conference at 8 a.m. on Friday at the Seattle Vocational Institute, 2120 S Jackson St, Seattle, Room 102.