SEATTLE (AP) – Charleena Lyles loved to sing and dance. She adored her four children. She always smiled, even when facing obstacles.
Friends and family members say the 30-year-old pregnant woman shot and killed by police this week was so much more than authorities’ account of an unstable person who confronted two officers with kitchen knives and had previous run-ins with the law.
The Seattle woman was kind and caring, and “if you met her, you would be drawn in,” said her older sister, Monika Williams.
“I don’t care what she was going through or what anybody was trying to bring on her, she would hit it with a smile,” Williams said.
Authorities noted the shooting happened less than two weeks after Lyles threatened officers with long metal shears, and family members expressed concerns about her mental health after that incident. Lyles also was arrested in 2014 for assault.