The Seattle Police Department, which leads a statewide Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said they set up a sting in Room 1513 of the Doubletree Hotel near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“Officers were waiting to arrest the 67-year-old white man when he arrived at the hotel room, where he thought he was meeting two young girls, seven and 11 years old,” Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said in a statement.
The three Seattle police officers waiting for the suspect in the room each wore body cameras and black uniforms that clearly identified them as police
.At 3:13 p.m., a man appeared on the hallway of the atrium-style hotel, according to videos posted by police on YouTube.
The officers answered the door, and within 15 seconds, Meneley was dead, police said. One officer was wounded as guests hid from a fusillade of up to 30 bullets above the open-air lobby.
Police posted videos of the shooting on YouTube on April 19 — two days after the shooting — with an introduction by Chief Diaz.“
For our officers, these situations are dangerous, unpredictable, and can escalate rapidly,” Diaz said. “We want to warn you what you’re about to see is disturbing.
”A few moments into the videos, the picture switches to inside the hotel room. The shooting unfolds three times from the body cams of the three officers involved.
The videos show officers opening the door to Room 1513. Outside is a man in a baseball cap, dress shirt, jeans, and a light green jacket standing in the entryway with his right hand across his chest and inside his coat. Police blurred the man’s face.
Seattle police officers start to identify themselves, but the man backs up and pulls a handgun from his pocket. Officers grapple with him and grasp the pistol to turn the muzzle back towards the man.
There is a single gunshot.
“Gun!” the officer shouts, holding the man’s hand, then firing what appears to be two shots from his gun. Officers flanking the man pull their pistols and fire several shots — television station Fox 13 counted about 30 — that explode and echo through the high atrium.
The last video shows the third officer who unloads the full magazine of his semi-automatic pistol into the blurred body before quickly reloading. Down the hall is another officer, apparently grazed by a bullet, who seeks cover behind the wall.
An officer is heard reporting on a radio, “Shots fired, shots fired,” then saying, “Suspect down, help the officer.”
