By Renee Raketty

Kalvinn Jay Garcia, 24, made his first appearance on Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle for a February 24, 2020, arson at Queer/Bar. The establishment is a popular nightclub and event space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

According to court documents, the blaze was set at approximately 9 PM in a large recycling dumpster next to the building — in an alleyway it shares with the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct. The flames leapt up the side of the building toward the second floor, where at least 50 people were attending an event while several customers were inside the club on the first floor.

The fire, investigated as an intentionally set dumpster fire, was not widely reported by media including CHS at the time and Seattle Police did not include the incident in its regular briefings of significant incidents in the precinct.

Prosecutors say video surveillance from the East Precinct captured the alleged arson and showed flames surging three to four feet high above the dumpster. In the videos, prosecutors say Garcia could be seen walking southbound in the alleyway at approximately 8:55 PM toward the dumpster at the rear of Queer/Bar. He appeared to be smoking a cigarette while looking up at the second floor event space where music was loudly playing and people were singing. The business was lit with pink uplighting. Garcia could be seen manipulating contents inside the top of the dumpster before its contents suddenly ignited.

After allegedly setting the fire, police say Garcia walked hurriedly northbound away from the dumpster — looking back several times before turning onto E. Pine Street. SPD officers were dispatched within one minute. Garcia was spotted by an officer in the 1400 block of Broadway and met the description of the suspect. Police say the two made eye contact and Garcia pulled his hood over his head and quickened his pace. He ran up two flights of stairs of a parking lot, before he was stopped by the officer and placed under arrest.

SPD officers reported using several portable dry chemical extinguishers to attempt to put out the blaze, which they said nearly reached the windows of the second floor event space. Queer/Bar was evacuated as the fire continued to burn. The Seattle Fire Department had to use a water hose to completely douse the fire. The recycle dumpster was stacked with cardboard, and a grease trap and grease barrel was next to it. The back exit door for Queer/Bar was within a few feet.

The brick exterior of the building was scorched and the fire resulted in the cancelation of events planned at the nightclub for several days. Repairs to the exterior, as well cleaning and removal of burnt debris was required.

The dangerous dumpster fire came early in a year when arson fears around the East Precinct would play a major role in the summer’s clashes between police and protestors at 12th and Pine. SPD leaders would claim FBI warnings about a possible arson attack on the building were at the center of the decision to abandon the East Precinct and clear police from the area around the CHOP occupied protest. But the Queer/Bar alley arson was not cited by officials as they justified the decision in the months of investigation that followed.

Garcia, meanwhile, originally faced hate crime charges but the federal case includes only the arson charge.

FBI agent Josh Anderson told the court that he was involved in investigating cases involving civil rights, hate crimes and color of law offences and had consulted with Detective Scott Kawahara with the Seattle Police Department’s Arson Unit on the case.

During questioning at the East Precinct, police say Garcia told Kawahara that he blamed “fucking queers and fucking fairies” for being kicked out of the place he was staying and becoming homeless. He also allegedly stated he did not like them and described them as “disgusting” and stated he doesn’t believe their lifestyle should be flaunted in his face. He added that he got angry and, instead of taking his rage out on a “bunch of queers,” he started the fire. “I’m going to take these fucking queers,” he said, according to police.

Garcia told police he had not taken any drugs and was not on any medication. He said he had not had any alcohol. He admitted to the SPD investigator that setting the fire was a “pretty stupid thing to do.”

Garcia was originally charged in King County Superior Court with arson and a hate crime, but was released from jail due to COVID-19 restrictions. A federal grand jury returned the arson indictment on January 21, 2021. He was transferred into federal custody on Friday after serving out a jail sentence for theft in Whatcom County.

The indictment states that the Grand Jury did find that suspect “did maliciously damage and destroy, and attempt to destroy, by means of fire, a building, namely Queer/Bar…that was used in interstate and foreign commerce and in activity affecting interstate and foreign commerce.”

Arson is punishable by a minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum term of twenty years, and a maximum fine of $250,000.00. Assistant United States Attorneys Rebecca Cohen and Trial Attorney AeJean Cha of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.

Garcia was last known to be a resident of Sedro-Woolley in Skagit County.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.