Seattle cops had mock tombstone for teen killed by officers

Seattle police kept a mock headstone for a black robber killed in a shootout with cops on display in a precinct break room — leaving the dead teen’s mom “heartbroken.”

Video obtained in an unrelated matter shows a handful of officers lounging in a small room adorned with a US flag and another for “Trump 2020” — as well as a tombstone for 19-year-old Damarius Butts on a shelf.

The small memorial has a black-power fist along with Butts’ name, age and the 2017 date he died in a gun battle that injured three officers, including one hit in the chest and another in the face, after he held up a store just to get beer.

Butts’ mom, Stephanie, was filmed by KIRO 7 shaking her head in shock as she watched the footage for the first time alongside the dead teen’s grandmother

“I can’t express how hurtful it was to learn that [the Seattle Police Department] endorsed joking about the killing of my son by displaying a fake tombstone with his name on it,” the mom told The Seattle Times in a statement through her attorney.

“I didn’t think SPD could take more from me … I was wrong.”

The mom is “heartbroken,” according to her attorney, La Rond Baker, who is also the legal director for the ACLU of Washington.

“I don’t even have the words to explain how difficult it was to, one, tell her that this was what SPD was doing, and then also to deal with … her rightful reaction of anger and pain and loss and dismay,” Baker also told Fox 13, calling it “incredibly disturbing.”

“Seattle deserves so much better from an agency sworn to protect Seattle residents,” she told The Seattle Times.

The Trump flag could be a violation of state law and department policy over partisan politics, and other disturbing objects included a protester’s sign pleading for police to “Stop Killing Us,” the reports noted.

“The video shows a break room adorned with disturbing trophies and iconography,” claimed Braden Pence, the attorney who obtained the bodycam footage in an unrelated lawsuit about graffiti laws.

“Casually displaying the tombstone of a person you killed in your break room is disgusting,” Pence said. “The Butts family is owed a deeply felt apology for the horrific disrespect shown by SPD.”

The police department told the paper that does “not know how that item ended up on storage shelving,” and that it has “confirmed it is no longer there.”

“We have no reason to believe it was placed as a ‘trophy’ or with any pejorative intent,” the force insisted.

The footage was taken in January 2021, when Seattle was still a hotbed for the Black Lives Matter protests.

“Protesters often placed items such as these commemorating subjects of the use of force locally and nationwide around the precinct,” the department said. “It would not be unexpected that items left at the precinct might land on a storage shelf until disposition.”

Still, Lieutenant John O’Neil conceded to FOX 13 that no matter how the flags and tombstones got there, there is no question that they are inappropriate and have no place in a City facility.”

O’Neil said the force would “pledge our full support” to an expected investigation by the Office of Police Accountability.

Butts had held up a downtown convenience store with a handgun to get beer when he was chased by three officers in April 2017.

He bled to death after being shot 11 times in a gun battle in which three officers were injured.

Multiple investigations, including the inquest, ruled that the shooting was justified.