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Statement

Moms Group Calls Police Shooting of Charleena Lyles, Pregnant Mom of Four Suffering a Mental Health Crisis, an ‘Unacceptable Tragedy’

June 19, 2017
Maternal Health

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- Yesterday, Seattle police officers shot and killed Charleena Lyles, a black 30-year-old mother of four having a mental health emergency, in front of “several children.” According to the Seattle Times, Lyles had a history of mental health struggles and was three months pregnant with her fifth child when she was shot by police. Lyles had called the police to report a possible burglary and was killed by responding officers.
 
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the executive director and CEO of MomsRising, an organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families, who is also a Seattle resident, issued the following statement responding to the shooting:
 
“The police killing of Charleena Lyles, a pregnant black woman in the midst of a mental health crisis who called the police to report a burglary, is an unacceptable tragedy. There is no question that the Seattle police department could have and should have used de-escalation tactics, instead of shooting first and asking questions later. 
 
“MomsRising mourns Charleena’s death in solidarity with the Lyles family and her four children who watched their mother be gunned down by police.  
 
“It is clear that the ‘historic reforms’ within the Seattle police department, a department with a long record of racially discriminatory violence, have fallen far short of what was needed to keep Lyles and her family safe. And this isn’t just a Seattle problem: across the country, Black people are three times more likely than White people to be killed when they encounter police.
 
“Enough is enough. Charleena Lyles’ life matters. Black lives matter.
 
“It's time for each of us to stand up and demand an end to what we're all seeing in the news and reading in reports: Structural racism permeates our criminal justice system from the moment the police are called (as this mom did) all the way through sentencing and beyond. This has to stop.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.