City of Seattle agrees to pay $3.5M to settle Charleena Lyles wrongful-death civil suit

A photo of Charleena Lyles is taped to a chair outside Brettler Family Place in June 2017. Friends and family of Lyles, shot and killed by Seattle police, had a vigil for her there. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)

By Sara Jean Green
November 3, 2021

The city of Seattle has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the children of Charleena Lyles, a Black mother of four who was fatally shot by two Seattle police officers in June 2017.

Karen Koehler, a Seattle attorney who represented Lyles’ estate, said the case was scheduled to go to trial in King County Superior Court in February before the settlement was reached Monday night.

“For the family and especially for the children, it’s a restoration of dignity,” Koehler said of the settlement announced Tuesday after “a marathon” 13 1/2-hour session mediated by retired King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick. 

Lyles’ children, two girls and two boys now between the ages of 5 and 16, are being raised in California by Lyles’ aunt, Merry Kilpatrick. The two youngest have special needs and Kilpatrick is in the process of adopting them, Koehler said. 

Koehler said the settlement says to them that their mother “did nothing that should’ve led to her death … she should not have received seven bullets.”

Dan Nolte, a spokesman for Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, called Lyles’ shooting death an indisputable tragedy and said in an email that he’s glad the settlement agreement has brought some closure to the parties involved.