At least eight people have been charged with crimes related to the May Day protest last week that Seattle Police say turned into a “riot” on Capitol Hill. Of the 16 total that were arrested, only four were from Seattle.
Three males and one female, ages ranging from 19-24, were arrested for felony assault, though no charges were filed in the arrests as of Wednesday afternoon. Charges are expected to be filed in at least two of the cases, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, while the other two cases have not yet been referred to prosecutors.
Eight other male suspects all pleaded not guilty to charges in municipal court, mostly for obstruction. No arrests were made this year for property destruction, though several vehicles — including a much-photographed KIRO radio news jeep — were damaged and tagging and broken windows were reported up and down Broadway.
Gary Tonks, 24, pleaded not guilty to an illegal weapons possession charge and is being held on $15,000 bail. Brendan McCormack, 28, pleaded not guilty to reckless endangerment and is being held on $30,000 bail.
UPDATE 4:30 PM: “Idiotic.” That’s how council member Bruce Harrell described to two SPD officials the way officers handled the first May Day arrest that appeared to spark a burst of mayhem on Capitol Hill.
The incident on Broadway, which was captured on video from a TV news helicopter overhead, appears to show an officer on a bicycle ramming the back of a protestor in the anti-capitalist march, then taking the suspect to the ground.
Captain Chris Fowler, who was giving a May Day debriefing to Harrell and the Council’s public safety committee Wednesday, said the arresting officer had probable cause that the man assaulted an officer minutes before the arrest. Still, Harrell questioned the decision to arrest the suspect at that moment.
“If we had intel that one person assaulted an officer, and that person was not fleeing, we could have avoided using all these devices,” Harrell said. The suspect in the video, Adrien Roques, 32, pleaded not guilty to assaulting an officer with a traffic cone.
The 30-minute debriefing also included a lengthy discussion over the names of SPD’s “less lethal weapons” that were deployed during the protest, including “pepper ball guns,” “blast balls,” and “blue tipped impact sponges.”
“We don’t use anything I would consider a ‘rubber bullet,’”said Assistant Chief Steve Wilske.
Wilske said all of SPD’s use of force incidents during the protest, including every one of the many blast balls deployed, will be reviewed the by the use of force review board with members of the federal monitoring team. He didn’t say when that report would be made available.
Man said he was hit by this “sting bomb” by SPD. Can you confirm that this was yours, @SeattlePD? pic.twitter.com/OxOF8d16lD
— Bryan Cohen (@bchasesc) May 6, 2015
During public comments, Capitol Hill Chamber director Michael Wells said neighborhood business owners were generally happy with SPD’s response. However, he said he heard complaints about tear gas wafting into apartments and businesses whose occupants were not involved in the protest.
Here’s the list of those arrested for felonies and those charged with crimes, according to Seattle Municipal Court and King County Superior Court records:
Adrien Roques, 32, pleaded not guilty to assault.
A 23-year-old male was arrested for felony assault.
Diego Miguel, 19, pleaded not guilty to obstruction, and failure to disperse.
Casey Miller, 20, pleaded not guilty to obstruction.
Tobiah Goetz, 27, pleaded not guilty to obstruction.
A 24-year-old male was arrested for felony assault.
Kristopher Watson, 28, pleaded not guilty to obstruction.
Brendan McCormack, 28, pleaded not guilty reckless endangerment.
A 19-year-old male was arrested for felony assault.
Gary Tonks, 24, pleaded not guilty to obstruction and illegal weapons possession.
Austin Larkin, 24, pleaded not guilty to obstruction.
A 21-year-old female was arrested for felony assault.
Pretrial hearings were set for most cases in the coming weeks. Three of those arrested during May Day were not charged and another male had charges pending in municipal court as of Wednesday afternoon.
UPDATE: The King County Prosecutor’s office said it has charged Tavner Castle, 24, with third degree assault for allegedly throwing a lit flare:
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Rolando Cordova-Kelly also faces a third degree assault charge for allegedly throwing “dangerous objects into a crowd of officers.”
Three officers were hospitalized for injuries sustained during the protest while protestors sustained welts, cuts, and bruises they said were caused by SPD’s flash bang crowd control explosives which created giant booms through the night. Some protestors were also treated by fellow marchers after being pepper sprayed by police.
UPDATE: SPD has announced that nine officers sustained injuries:
One officer sustained a hand laceration after being struck by shards of glass from a bottle, thrown by a suspect.
One officer sustained a finger fracture while taking a suspect into custody.
One officer sustained a wrist injury—either a sprain or a fracture, still to be determined—after a suspect knocked them off their patrol bicycle.
One officer sustained a dislocated shoulder during the event. Details of the circumstances leading to the injury are not yet available.
Five other officers also sustained hearing loss, eye injuries, and/or burns from an incendiary device thrown by a suspect.
According to a probable cause statement from SPD, an officer on a bicycle was hospitalized for a wrist injury after a protestor allegedly blocked his path and caused the officer to be “thrown down to the ground.” The protestor was arrested for felony assault without incident. Another protestor was arrested for felony assault for allegedly throwing a brick at officers while another was arrested on the same charge for allegedly throwing a road flare, according to probable cause statements.
The number of charges resulting from this year’s May Day marks a departure from protests in years past where few of those arrested were ever charged. In 2014, only three of the ten people arrested were charged in the days following the protest. Seventeen people were arrested during May Day 2013.
CHS reported on the May Day 2015 events as they happened — including drone sightings, a man stuck on a basketball hoop, and pictures of people taking Capitol Hill riot selfies. You can view the Capitol Hill timeline and reports here.
“We didn’t anticipate that even before dark it would become violent,” SPD Chief Kathleen O’Toole told CHS the Saturday morning following the clashes with protesters. “In shutting it all down, it ended up back at the college. We fully expected them to go downtown.”
SPD Deputy Chief Carmen Best and Assistant Chief Steve Wilske will be giving a May Day debriefing to the City Council’s public safety committee during its Wednesday, 2 PM meeting.
UPDATE 5/7/15 9:20 AM: SPD has released a small set of reports documenting assaults reported by officers during the May Day clash on Broadway. We have embedded the reports below. The reports document the response of bike officers to the scene at Broadway and Howell and detail some of the accounts of officers who reported being assaulted or having objects thrown at them:
“Officer Myers showed me the piece of rock he was struck by and I would estimate it to be a 2 inch by 2 inch piece,” the report continues. “Officer Myers did not sustain any injury from the rock because of the protective equipment he was wearing during the protest.”
In another report, a bike officer’s wrist injury is documented:
In addition to documenting arrests and injuries from the SPD point of view, the reports also include summary descriptions of the crowds including this write-up of the “Black Bloc” protesters:
“According to a probable cause statement from SPD, an officer on a bicycle was hospitalized for a wrist injury after a protestor allegedly blocked his path and caused the officer to be ‘thrown down to the ground.’ The protestor was arrested for felony assault without incident.”
Oh really? Who assaulted whom?
Washington state law: RCW 46.61.261
The rider of a bicycle shall yield the right of way to a pedestrian on a sidewalk or crosswalk.
Seattle traffic code: Section 11.44.120 RIDING ON A SIDEWALK OR PUBLIC PATH.
Every person operating a bicycle upon a sidewalk or public path shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian thereon, and shall give an audible signal before overtaking and passing any pedestrian.
Ok legal genius. During the discharge of official duties those laws don’t apply to officers, you just don’t get to block officers, no matter how much you don’t like it. Also…of we are going to go down that road then every person marching in the street that day should be arrested for pedestrian interference. Use your head.
“During the discharge of official duties those laws don’t apply to officers….”
Which laws? Traffic laws? All laws? Let’s see the applicable code, please.
next time you are in urgent need of police, fire or medical service we’ll make sure all traffic laws are obeyed and nobody speeds to your rescue. because, you know, the law.
@zeebleoop – Way to take it to the ridiculous. There are exceptions for emergency vehicles for but they have to operate legally and there are municipal codes which outline these requirements. These include proper light and audible signals. I’m not going to post the RFC, you can put a little energy into education but here is one condition around emergency vehicle exceptions:
(4) The foregoing provisions shall not relieve the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons, nor shall such provisions protect the driver from the consequences of his or her reckless disregard for the safety of others.
I don’t know if the video above is the incident where the officer was injured by assault or falling off a police bicycle but regardless, the video is a perfect example of poor policing by SPD. It just goes to show both the Nihilists and SPD wanted to battle. Harrell was 100% correct to question these counter productive tactics by SPD.
Zeeblepoop, on the video above, whose “rescue” were those bicycle cops speeding to when they ran into that line of marching demonstrators from behind?
SPD: “Who are you going to believe about charges of police using excessive and unconstitutional force on May Day? Us or your lying eyes?”
Sad that our comrades weren’t able to keep the SPD peaceful as long this year as last, but there’s only so much you can do with those gang types.
I don’t like anyone under 30.
And I don’t like anyone over 80
JordyAndf I am 81
Bruce vividly illustrates how the Seattle City Council trips over itself to embrace any kind of morons that manage to drift on into town. Real people who live on Capitol Hill are really fed up with the anarchists. City Council may want to re-calibrate the object of its use of the word “idiotic.” Bruce, sod off buddy and join us here in the actual city of Seattle. Get out of your office once in awhile.
Some real people who live on the hill are fed up with police repeatedly causing mayhem and confusion, escalating any situation they find distasteful to the point that they likely can justify engaging in violence.
Phil Mocek, has it ever occurred to you that some real people on the Hill are fed up with you?
And many other real people on the Hill think Mocek is awesome. Like this one, for example.
Let us know when the Stranger writes an article about _your_ significant contribution to the community, “Kid.”
http://www.thestranger.com/news/feature/2015/05/06/22172178/what-two-programmers-have-revealed-so-far-about-seattle-police-officers-who-are-still-in-uniform
The Stranger is not a newspaper nor is it journalism. It makes money from advertisers looking for a counterculture audience on Capitol Hill. Its like saying some phone pole fliers said I was awesome.
In that very article philM admits to deliberately causing a scene at a new Mexico for no reason at all which is what started his mission. He is some weird leftist libertarian with a axe to grind because he thinks he is above identifying him self and is more important then those who were around him in that airport. Typical self important genX era programmer really. And Anzel I don’t know what his problem is other then he wishes he was a oppressed person of color.
For “no reason at all”? Hardly. I don’t believe we should be required to request and receive permission from our government in order to exercise our right to transit through the navigable airspace (i.e., to travel via common carrier airline from one state to another).
I wrote a bit about it here on CHS. I spoke at length about it in this interview of my by a representative of Fully-Informed Jury Association.
See also related information about
State of New Mexico v. Phillip Mocek and about Phillip Mocek v. Albuquerque et al..
Sorry dude you deliberatly didn’t bring ID to create a provocation your rights aren’t so special that you can endanger others. I get you grew up with white privilege but the needs of the many out way your weird don’t tread on me beliefs.
keep doin what you do phil! real people real talk
Bruce gets out of the office plenty! He loves the view of Seattle from his condo in Bellevue. If he has to slum it, he heads for his house in Seward Park.
Bruce Harrell was present at a couple of community meetings that I attended when we had a particularly terrible series of gang crimes and shootings in our neighborhood. At the meetings he showed a significant bias for those committing the crimes and a complete lack of regard for those having to live with the crime.
You couldn’t pay me enough to hang out on Broadway or Pike/Pine on May day. Moron central.
agreed! There just isn’t enough money for that in my world.
Let’s be sure we litigate this as loudly and passionately as possible so that we give the anarchists (lower case intentional) more cause to show up in Seattle next year.
Harrell: Why??! If you’ve got a beef, express it privately!
anarchists: Somalia’s got everything you want. It’s friggin’ RAD there!
OG bravely taking a stand against the powerful pro-Anarchist lobby.
Bruce Harrell is another member of the Clowncil who has outlived his usefulness to the City and needs to retire and let somebody in who has a clue.
Chief O’Toole and her department did a GREAT job on 5/1 and we owe them our thanks for keeping the anarchists from getting TOO far out of hand.
Agreed.
I am glad to see that there have been arrests made and hope that any who were injured on both sides heal quickly. I am also glad to see the police will review their use of force. Prosecuting the people who cause injuries and chaos year after year could lead to a stop to some of this nonsense.
[…] is here and you can find our live reporting of May Day 2015 here. Earlier this week, we reported on charges filed against some of those arrested and criticism of SPD’s heavy-handed response. Following the critical session in front of the Seattle City Council, SPD responded to the […]