Kyle M. Gray, 24, was shot and killed by Seattle police after he and a woman were reportedly involved in an armed robbery at the Northgate Mall on Monday night, according to police.
Seven Seattle police officers fired shots during a fatal confrontation with a man in Magnuson Park early Tuesday, the department announced Friday.
The officers were identified as Domisi Thrash, Ernest Cleaves, Paul Masters, Adam Elias, Chase McEvilly, Garret Hay and Jared Keller.
The confrontation with Kyle M. Gray, 24, occurred after he and a woman were reportedly involved in an armed robbery at the Northgate Mall on Monday night, according to police.
During a series of events, Gray led officers on a car chase through North Seattle in which he fired shots before he exited the car at the park, police said. Body-camera video released by police Wednesday shows him not responding to commands to raise his hands before he was shot.
It wasn’t immediately known how many times Gray was hit. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office says he died from multiple gunshot wounds.
On Thursday, Gray’s mother, Kimberly Gray, told The Seattle Times that her son “runs into the woods and they shoot him. He didn’t even have the gun on him — it was left in the car — and he didn’t reach for anything. They knew they were going to shoot him. It should be against the law in the entire United States of America. It’s just awful and that’s all I have to say.”
Police have not said where the handgun was found, but a law-enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity because the shooting remains under investigation, said a gun was found near Gray after he was shot.
Under standard policy, the seven officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the department’s Force Investigation Team examines the shooting.
According to police, Thrash was hired by the department on June 23, 2010; Cleaves on Jan. 14, 2016; Masters on March 7, 2017; Elias on Oct. 24, 2001; McEvilly on Jan. 5, 2017; Hay on July 14, 2015; and Keller on Sept. 30, 2015.
Police say Gray is believed to have first been involved the robbery about 10 p.m. Monday at the Forever 21 store in the Northgate Mall.
The store manager confronted a man and a woman, and the man flashed a handgun, causing the manager to back away, police said.
The suspects drove from the mall to an apartment complex parking lot in the Northgate neighborhood, where the man confronted an employee who told him to move his car, police said. The man fired a gun into the ground during an argument, police said.
Shortly after, officers found the woman on nearby Holman Road Northwest and took her into custody.
As officers were arresting her, the male suspect, later identified as Gray, drove away and the chase began, police said.
Gray was wanted on an arrest warrant issued in June after he failed to report for community supervision, the state’s equivalent of parole, at the state Department of Corrections office in Port Orchard, according to a department spokeswoman.
Gray had been released from the Clallam Bay Corrections Center in December 2014 after serving time for bail jumping and possession of a controlled substance, the spokeswoman said. He began serving his sentence in May 2014.