The King County prosecutor has decided not to press charges against Officer Ian Birk regarding this incident.

This whole incident is reminding me of the what the Federal Government did to protect Lon Horiuci after Ruby Ridge.  The officer created this incident, and shot a man without any real probable cause.  The individual had done nothing wrong, was not aggressive or threatening anyone, yet he was shot four times.  The reasoning for the prosecutors office was the following:

Speaking Wednesday, Satterberg cited a 25-year-old state law mandating that police officers not by held criminally liable for using deadly force if they acted "without malice and a good faith belief" that their actions were justified.

Any civilian who made the same decision as Birk would be charged with murder, or at minimum manslaughter.  There is no way that they would escape criminal prosecution.  Even in video taped incidents of self defense civilians do end up on trial.  Why is law enforcement given a free pass?  So what that their job is more dangerous, if they use deadly force, it needs to be CLEARLY justified.  In this case Seattle PD has admitted that he was clearly unjustified.

Initially the department said Williams made a move toward the officer, but it later backed away from that assertion. Sources tell KING 5 a preliminary review on October 4 by the firearms review board concluded the shooting was not justified.

So, this is really just the same story we’ve heard before, but now on a lower level than the Federal level.  Remember, they’re exempt, you are not.