Seattle police officer who shot B.C. man resigns

SEATTLE— The Seattle police officer who fatally shot a woodcarver from Vancouver Island resigned Wednesday, Seattle police Chief John Diaz announced.

Ian Birk, 27, had joined the department in July 2008.

Earlier Wednesday, King County prosecuting attorney Dan Satterberg said his office would not file criminal charges against Birk for shooting John Williams on Aug. 30, 2010.

Williams, who had lived in Seattle for years, was a member of the Ditidaht First Nation based near Nitinat Lake, near Port Renfrew, B.C. He had a knife and a piece of wood in his possession when killed.

Diaz also announced that Satterberg’s decision notwithstanding, the shooting of Williams was ruled not justified by the police department’s firearms review board.

The resignation will not halt the department’s internal investigation into Birk, Diaz said.

Depending on the department’s findings, the move could prevent Birk from becoming a law enforcement officer anywhere in Washington state.

Satterberg’s decision angered members of Williams’ family and prompted a handful of public protests on Wednesday. Protesters outside Seattle City Hall cheered when they received word of Birk’s resignation. Several chanted, “Prosecute!”

Birk had been stripped of his gun and badge last October as a result of a preliminary finding by the department that the shooting was unjustified.

Rita Williams, John Williams’s sister in Vernon, B.C., said Birk’s resignation offered no comfort for her family.

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