Justice for Joseph Ejeh

By: The Nightly Crew

Joseph Agada Ejeh was a 44-year-old son, brother, uncle, and IT specialist who moved to Seattle from Nigeria in 2016. Family describe him as “full of life,” a deep thinker who loved to read, work out, and play video games. He had an infectious laugh and a generous disposition. On December 5th, 2023, Bellevue police shot and killed him outside an LA Fitness.

The story floating around Kiro and King 5 is that Joseph was “acting erratically.” Allegedly, he walked into LA Fitness holding a knife, at which point someone called the cops. Now, you’d think that having been told there was a man walking around with a knife, these officers would be prepared to deal with a man walking around with a knife. But no. They shot him four times because he “advanced toward” them. This is a phrase we need to translate for Kiro, since it’s hard to speak clearly while licking boot. “Advanced toward” mostly likely means Joseph took a step in the cops’ general direction. If they could’ve said Joseph “attacked” or “lunged at” the officers, they would have– but they didn’t, which means there was no way they could have portrayed his movement as an attack. So a civilian with a knife took a step toward a bunch of cops, and they shot him four times. Keep in mind, this is the most favorable way the police could possibly frame their story. This is if Joseph really did have a knife, which the cops haven’t confirmed, and which his family says is very out of character.

“He didn’t have a heart for violence,” said his sister, Lillian Ejeh. “That's the weird part. There are some things he just couldn’t watch because he didn’t have the stomach for violence. For him to end like this… just, I can’t explain it.”

The Bellevue police didn’t tell Joseph’s family what had happened until December 12, a full week after his murder. They returned his body to his family, but refused to return his personal effects, including his phone and wallet. Two weeks after the shooting, Joseph’s Facebook page was wiped– completely wiped, which shouldn’t be possible, since a Facebook account is supposed to remain accessible for 30 days after it’s deleted. Since the police read through his Whatsapp messages and stole his phone, it’s not unlikely to think they also wiped his Facebook. Joseph’s family are left unable to memorialize his page as they desired. 

It’s evident that the cops want as little information getting out about this as possible. They’ve refused to release body cam footage or footage from nearby security cameras. All we’ve gotten is conflicting stories and unverified suggestions of a knife. They really want us thinking about that knife. Did he have a knife? Did he not have a knife? It doesn’t matter if he was twirling a fucking machete, you can’t shoot a civilian four times and call it self-defense. Even if someone is “acting erratically,” you get them mental help, you call a family member to talk them down, you don’t kill them. Like Joseph’s sister said: “They didn’t use any taser, they didn’t try to talk him down, they didn’t shoot him somewhere, maybe his arm or, I don’t know, his legs.” It’s clear that Joseph’s life meant less than nothing to the cops. They didn’t see him as a human being, and neither does the rest of the legal system. The officer who committed the murder has been placed on administrative leave, basically a paid vacation: another cop getting less than a slap on the wrist for murdering a Black person. On the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office website (where you can also find the names of the other people the King County police have killed– at least the ones they couldn’t cover up), the status of Joseph’s case says “Ongoing Law Enforcement Investigation.” So law enforcement is being investigated by law enforcement. No conflict of interest there.

With the state doing its best to keep things quiet, Joseph’s friends and family are forced to search for answers while they grieve. They’ve started a petition for the Bellevue Police Department to release all footage of the murder, for the King County Medical Examiner to return Joseph’s belongings to his family, for Facebook to restore his account, and for anyone with relevant information to contact justiceforjosephejeh@gmail.com. There’s also a GoFundMe to raise money for legal and funeral expenses. “At this point,” the fundraiser says, “we’re just trying to get the truth of what happened.” 

The truth is the bare minimum, but Joseph’s family is having to fight for even that, and the police aren’t going to give in willingly. We know institutions don’t act on ethics; they only give in to demands if there’s enough public pressure to threaten their funding. So if Joseph Ejeh is going to get even the bare minimum of justice, there needs to be a lot more awareness. His murder was over two months ago, and there’s been no media talk about it except for a handful of short, cop-sympathetic articles from December. The Nightly isn’t a very big newspaper, but if someone reads this and posts the GoFundMe and then one of their followers donates and reposts and so on, Joseph’s family could garner the support they need to get their demands met. So please do that.