Officers Recount Moments Before Shooting Charleena Lyles

SEATTLE, WA - Seattle police on Friday night released transcripts of interviews with the two officers who shot Charleena Lyles on Sunday morning. In the interviews, the officers describe a strange encounter with Lyles that suddenly turned dangerous when the pregnant 30-year-old mother of four pulled a knife on them. The transcripts shed light on what the officers were thinking when they reacted with deadly force - a decision that has been called into question by Lyles' family.

In addition to the transcripts with officers Steven McNew and Jason Anderson, Seattle police also released a diagram of Lyles' apartment and images of the knives that Lyles was allegedly holding.

"[It] happened very fast, but a knife gets produced. [Then] what was a victim who was calm in her demeanor, who was answering questions ... in a way that didn’t make me feel she was plotting something, she was just answering questions. You ask date of birth, she was answering. You know, I’m hearing this going on with Officer Anderson as I’m taking in the scene and then, all of a sudden there’s a knife and she’s got [visible] there’s visible emotion, like you know her face is grimaced," McNew told investigators.

McNew and Officer Jason Anderson had responded to Lyles' apartment inside a complex at Magnuson Park on Sunday morning just before 10 a.m. to talk to her about a burglary that had taken place at her apartment. Anderson was at the scene first, according to transcripts, and the two officers talked about an incident earlier in June involving Lyles where she had brandished a large pair of scissors in front of responding officers. Lyles was arrested and imprisoned after that incident.

Inside Lyles' apartment, Anderson takes the lead in talking to Lyles about the burglary as McNew looks on. McNew recounts an apartment in "disarray" with moldering food strewn around. And as McNew is taking in the apartment, he recalls wondering whether a burglary had actually occurred.

"I was in an evaluation of 'are we dealing with a burglary?'" he told investigators. "I was in that mindset, investigating a burglary and the two items that were missing just didn’t quite fit ... ."

At one point, McNew tells investigators, Lyles puts her hand in her pocket; she was wearing a "black down coat or a black overcoat," according to McNew. Although McNew takes note of her movement, he recalls thinking, "you know with the one hand, hand came out, not big deal."

Then suddenly, McNew recalls, Lyles pulls a knife out of a pocket and says, "Motherf---r" to the officers, at which point McNew draws his gun.

"I knew I drew my gun, I mean it was the immediate reaction, you know the knife was produced, it’s, it’s the 'Oh my God' moment, you know I, I draw my gun, but I couldn’t remember the commands, I couldn’t remember what I said to her," he told investigators.

McNew recalls that it seemed like Lyles was going to throw the knife, and he ducks down, expecting to get stabbed. At this juncture, McNew and Anderson are close to Lyles, but McNew is behind a kitchen island. In a matter of seconds, McNew describes Lyles moving closer toward him, closing off his way to escape the galley-style kitchen. As the gap closes, he decides to open fire.

"I knew she was talking and I thought she said, 'Come on' or something like that and she starts closing that gap to where she’s gonna cut off my, my avenue of escape and now I’m 3 feet from someone with 2 knives," he told investigators. "And at that point fearing for what was about to happen, what she would do to me um, being stuck in that spot, I fired my handgun."

Anderson's description of the event is more violent. He tells an investigator that he was writing in his notebook when he notices "the flash" of a knife as Lyles pulles her hand out of her coat pocket.

"I remember saying 'What the,' as I was jumping back, uh, kind of sucking my abdomen in trying to avoid getting stabbed in the stomach," he recalls. Similarly to McNew, Anderson describes the interaction with Lyles turning from routine to dangerous in seconds.

Anderson decided to open fire on Lyles, he tells investigators, when he saw her attention turn to McNew. He also recalls McNew asking him if he had a Taser, and he remembers thinking the non-lethal weapon would not be appropriate for the situation.

"I don’t know at what point she changed her focus from, from me to Steve, um, but as she started turning the corner to go after Steve that’s when I um, that’s when I shot."

Image via Patch.com/Neal McNamara