From [HERE] and [HERE] Pregnant Black mother of four children, Charleena Lyles, was shot and killed in her home by white police officers in 2017. The city of Seattle has reached a settlement in the amount of $3.5 million in the late mother’s wrongful-death lawsuit.

According to the Seattle Times, the settlement was reached Monday (Nov. 30), voiding the need for a trial in February 2022.

“For the family and especially for the children, it’s a restoration of dignity,” said Seattle attorney Karen Koehler. She continued that Lyles “did nothing that should’ve led to her death … she should not have received seven bullets.”

After investigating itself, the Force Review Board, a panel of Seattle Police Department personnel, determined in a unanimous vote that the controversial shooting was consistent with police training. The analysis, released on December 8, 2017 details the factors considered for the vote, though it does not provide any recommendations to chance policy or training to prevent future incidents. [MORE]

The children (two boys and two girls) now between ages 5-16 are being raised by their aunt, Merry Kilpatrick. The two youngest have special needs and Kilpatrick is in the process of adopting them.

Officers Jason Anderson and Steven McNew fired at Lyles, a 30-year-old mother of four, when she allegedly lunged at them with knives she had been concealing in her coat pockets. The pair had been responding to her 911 call about a burglary in her apartment. 

The interaction began calmly, as Lyles informed police of an open door and allegedly stolen Xbox.  Audio of the incident then turned to a child crying and Lyles cursing at the officers. Police reported that there were three children in the apartment.

After surveying Lyles’s home, Anderson and McNew were jotting down their report when she allegedly pulled out two knives and started to come at Anderson, who yelled for her to get back and pulled out his gun. The woman, who was 5-foot-3 and 100 pounds, then turned toward McNew. The officers told authorities McNew was trapped in a dead-end kitchen galley as she brandished the pair of knives in her hands. The white cops apparently are more than two times her size.

McNew told investigators he instructed Anderson to pull out a Taser, but he didn’t have it on him because its battery had died, the report said. As Lyles moved toward McNew, both officers independently decided to fire their guns—McNew fired three rounds and Anderson fired four.

Lyles fell to the ground and her infant child, who had been crawling around in the living room, climbed onto her back, while her toddler sat in the living room. She was later found to be 14 to 15 weeks pregnant.

McNew—who had a baton—told investigators he “didn’t feel there was any other reasonable alternative” to shooting Lyles and didn’t use his baton because there wasn’t enough space to properly use it.

Anderson said he wouldn’t have used his Taser even if he had it because he was trained to use lethal force when faced with a knife attack. He also had pepper spray on him, but said he didn’t employ it because it would be “tactically counterproductive” and could get in the officers’ eyes, opening them up to attack, the board found.

Lyles was documented for mental health issues that the officers were aware of before they shot her in the confines of her apartment kitchen. Seattle Times reports she had called Seattle police 23 times in the past 18 months before her death.