Police in Seattle created a tombstone mocking a teenager that they fatally shot and displayed it in a break room that also featured a "Trump 2020" flag.
As reported by local news station KING 5, newly revealed police body camera footage of the break room features a mock tombstone for 19-year-old Demarius Butts, who was killed by Seattle police officers in 2017.
The footage has now sparked an investigation from the Seattle Office of Police Accountability, and it has also sparked a rebuke from Joel Merkel, co-chair of the Seattle Community Police Commission, who described himself as feeling "horrified" and "disgusted" by the footage.
"They're entrusted to provide constitutional policing services, they serve the public, they take an oath to serve the public," he said. "There should be no politicking, at their job, their worksite."
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KING 5 notes that the display of the Butts tombstone is particularly troubling because, at the time the footage was taken, there was still an inquest into whether police officers used inappropriate force in its confrontation with the teen while responding to a report of a robbery of a local 7-11 convenience store.
A jury ultimately found that the officers used appropriate force, although Merkel tells KING 5 that's no excuse for making fun of a person who died at their hands.
“They knew at the time that the inquest had already begun, and should have been a lot more sensitive to the fact that this was very disrespectful and grotesque, really to his family," he said.
