Did Seattle police say that a woman charged with killing her father with an ice ax was overwhelmed by President-elect Donald Trump's election? No, that's not true: The suspect's answer to a routine question about what day it was showed up as a statement of motive in the early version of a news article. A post on X used the first version of the news story.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, on November 11, 2024. It said:
BREAKING: Police say that a woman overwhelmed by President Trump's reelection has killed her father with ice ax in Rainier Valley.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Nov 12 18:37:04 2024 UTC)
The post on X linked to an article, archived here, from the KIRO7 News station website that was published on November 11, 2024, at 1:21 p.m. PST with the headline, "Police: Woman overwhelmed by election killed father with ice ax in Rainier Valley," as this screenshot shows:
(Source: KIRO 7 website screenshot taken on Wed Nov 13 17:28:11 2024 UTC)
The article read:
Corey Burke reportedly told detectives that she killed her father during a mental health crisis, feeling overwhelmed by emotions related to Election Day. She admitted to using the ax and also strangling him, stating that she 'just freaked out' when her father argued with her about the lights.
The deputy prosecutor noted that Corey Burke appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of the incident. She had been working on setting emotional boundaries with her father and felt 'hyper focused and disorganized' about their relationship.
An updated version of the article (archived here), posted on November 11, 2024, at 3:34 p.m. PST had an updated headline, "Seattle woman accused of killing father with ice axe after argument about lights," as this screenshot shows:
(Source: KIRO 7 website screenshot taken on Wed Nov 13 17:35:23 2024 UTC)
The article cited charging documents (archived here) that described the woman's admission of killing her father on November 5, 2024, which was Election Day, but did not say she was overwhelmed by Trump winning the election:
During her interview with detectives, she reportedly admitted to the killing, describing feeling overwhelmed by her relationship with her father and recounting that she 'freaked out' during their argument.
She allegedly told detectives, 'I killed him' and provided further details on the attack, including her decision to strike him with the axe multiple times to ensure he wouldn't survive.
Lead Stories contacted the Seattle Police Department and was directed to the City Attorney's office for the charging documents. We obtained the Seattle Police Department Certification for Determination of Probable Cause from Casey McNerthney, director of communications at the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, via email on November 12, 2024. The documents, beginning on page 5, show the woman said there had been an election and that Trump was elected on November 5, 2024, as the screenshot below shows:
On 11/6/24, at approximately a little after midnight, I responded to Harbourview Medical Center to speak with Corey Burke. I advised Corey that our conversation was being recorded and I then read Corey her Miranda warnings, and she stated she understood them. I first asked Corey if she knew what day it was, and he was able to say 11/6/2024. She was able to understand that the night had passed, and it was now a new day, and she was able to determine it was November 6th, and no longer November 5th. Additionally, I asked Corey if she knew who the current president of the United States was and she again was able to navigate the complications of that question, being that elections were held 11/5/24 and the president had just recently been decided. Corey responded with, "Well now the president is going to be Donald Trump." She seemed to be oriented correctly in time and space when I interviewed her.
(Source: Seattle Police charging documents screenshot taken on Wed Nov 13 19:40:11 2024 UTC)
On page 6, the documents state that the "he was overwhelmed," referring to her father, not the woman. The documents do not say the woman said Trump winning was the reason she murdered her father, as the screenshot below shows:
Corey began talking about her relationship with her father and said that she knew 'it needed to happen today.' Corey spoke about her recently being reborn, near her birthday of 10/25/24. She stated she knew that there was something important about election day. She continued to say that he was overwhelmed. Corey spoke about how she had been working on setting boundaries with her father about his emotions.
(Source: Seattle Police charging documents screenshot taken on Wed Nov 13 19:41:23 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories reached out to KIRO7 news station for a comment and will update the story when a response is received.
Other fact checks of claims regarding Donald Trump can be found here and of claims about the 2024 election can be found here.
