When former Seattle Police officer Ian Birk was asked why he shot Native American woodcarver John T. Williams four times in the side on a sunny summer day last August, he said that Williams had a ?furrowed brow, thousand-yard stare, set jaw, knife up in front of himself, shoulders raised, in a very confrontational posture.? The killing itself was bad enough?Williams was drunk, partially deaf, wearing headphones, and walking down the street minding his own business, closed pocketknife in hand, when Birk panicked and filled him full of lead?but that flimsy, deceitful justification after the fact was what really made Birk the most reviled man in Seattle, especially after those same words allowed him to escape punishment. Birk was disgraced and forced to resign, but he never apologized to Williams? family and refuses to admit that what he did that day was wrong. But then, why would he? A true villain never repents. KEEGAN HAMILTON