Police shoot Seattle man 12-times under the influence of large amounts of alcohol
EATTLE, WA — The 31-year-old man killed by Seattle police at a Queen Anne apartment in May was shot a dozen times, and was under the influence of a large amount of alcohol, an autopsy report says.
The autopsy confirms what Ryan Smith’s parents had guessed — that their son, who was known to binge drink, may have been too incapacitated to obey the officers who had confronted him. Smith’s blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) was .36 at the time of his death, according to a state police toxicology report shared with Patch by Smith’s mother.
The autopsy shows Smith was shot 12 times, and seven bullets were found inside his body, plus two wounds where only bullet fragments were found. Five of the bullets were clustered near Smith’s heart, with another likely fatal bullet that hit him in the throat.
Smith’s mother, Rose Johnson, said that she was “devastated” by the autopsy results — both because of the number of times her son was shot, and because of how impaired he was.
“It’s just overkill on a person,” she said.
Johnson also took issue with how the autopsy characterized her son’s death. The report says, “[T]he decedent brandished a knife and was shot multiple times following an altercation with law enforcement.” Johnson disputes that description because her son never came into contact with the officers.
Seattle police were called to Smith’s girlfriend’s apartment along 3rd Avenue West in Queen Anne at around 7 p.m. of May 8 on a report of a domestic violence situation. Smith’s girlfriend called 911 after she locked herself in the apartment bathroom, telling a dispatcher that Smith was armed with a knife and threatening to kill her.