Tag Archives: police investigation

Malcontentment Happy Hour: April 28, 2021

Our live webcast from the former Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

Content Warning

Editor’s Note: This show contains multiple videos of events that some viewers may find disturbing including graphic violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

The show from April 28, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • Exodus from the Seattle Police Department continues
  • All Fireworks Banned in King County Beginning in 2022
  • Auburn Police Treat Road Rage Victim Like a Criminal Suspect
  • King County Health Tells Business Leaders to Prepare for Phase 2 COVID Restrictions
  • Was the Stabbing In Bothell and the Shooting in Rainier Beach Asian-bias Crimes?
  • Malcontented Minuted – Police Edition
    • Video shows Police seconds before the raid of Andrew Brown, Junior’s Home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina
    • Video shows police officers fist-bumping and celebrating the injuries they caused to a 73-year old Alzheimer’s Patient
    • Stephanie Bottom, 66, in brutalized by North Carolina police on body cam and is starting a federal lawsuit
    • Virginia police officer misidentifies a cellphone as a gun and shoots Isaiah Brown 10 times
    • Bodycam video of Anthony Alvarez being shot by Chicago Police shows him running away
    • Two Hialeah, Florida Police officers have been arrested for writing fake traffic tickets
    • Bodycam video released on April 28 shows Lymond Moses being shot by police after a pretext welfare check because he was sleeping in his car
    • Tennessee police officer fired for high-fiving a suspect who used a racial slur during the arrest
    • Bodycam video of Mario Gonzalez being arrested in Almeda, California shows officers restaining him for over 5 minutes before he dies in custody
    • Prince Georges police officer arrested on multiple charges, including first-degree assault, after fellow officers turn him in for treatment of a Black teen suspect
  • Colleen Echohawk on Native-American Women Leaders

Updated: Suspect in Bothell stabbing arrested, no comment on potential anti-Asian hate crime from police

Updated April 30, 2021, 7:45 PM: You can read our updated story here

Editor Note April 29, 2021, 10:40 AM: A previous version of this story identified Williams as a former real estate agent. That was in error. The story has been updated.

[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Ian Patrick Williams of Bothell, was booked into King County Jail on April 26 for investigation of homicide and as a suspect in the stabbing death of a 29-year-old Asian man in Bothell. Williams is being held without bail and a date for arraignment has not been set by King County prosecutors.

According to KIRO news, Williams gave the middle finger to two unidentified Asian men who live in the same apartment building just outside of the entrance. The stabbing victim reportedly said, “what is wrong with you,” and Williams lunged at him with a knife, stabbing him fatally in the heart. Bystanders and police tried in vain to save the victim.

Bothell Police will not say if they are investigating this as a hate crime. Williams was arrested moments after the attack and apparently made no statement to police or bystanders.

Williams is a computer science student in their senior year. He is being held at King County Jail for investigation of second degree murder.

SPD officers in Washington, D.C. during January 6 insurrection tentatively identified

[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Researchers have tentatively identified the names and backgrounds of the 6 Seattle police officers who attended the Stop the Steal rally that devolved into an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election. Crosscut and our researchers had identified three officers previously.

The six Seattle police officers who allegedly were in Washington, D.C., during the insurrection are:

  • Scotty Bach, Acting Lieutenant through January 6, 2021, now listed as Sergeant
  • Jacob Briskey, Sergeant, K9 Officer
  • Alexander Everett, Officer, previously identified
  • Jason Marchione, Officer, previously identified by Crosscut
  • Caitlin Rochelle, Officer, previously identified 
  • Michael Settle, Vice Unit, Acting Sergeant

SPD listed Scotty Bach as an Acting Police Lieutenant assigned to the Southwest Precinct on October 15, 2020. The data shows he was an Acting Lieutenant through January 6, 2021, and returned to the rank of Sergeant on January 7. Bach is currently under investigation by the OPA for three separate incidents. 

Sergeant Jacob Briskey has been the subject of multiple uses of force complaints, and the city of Seatle had to pay a $269,000 settlement in 2009. In that case, Romelle Bradford sued for being wrongly arrested by Briskey and being “roughed up,” per a Seattle Times report in 2008. The city appealed the finding and ultimately lost the case.

Alexander Everett and Caitlin Rochelle were previously identified as a married couple who went to the January 6 Stop the Steal Rally. Acting Chief Diaz suspended the couple with pay after other officers came forward and reported their activity in Washington, D.C. They were married in December 2020, and it is reported that the trip to hear Donald Trump speak was their honeymoon. 

Jason Marchione is assigned to the South Precinct, and Crosscut previously revealed his attendance at the insurrection on January 6. Marchione and Rochelle are coworkers who work on the same shift. Marchione has had six OPA complaints since he started with SPD in 2017, and almost half of the use of force claims against the officer have been made by Black people. In one case, a Black man claims that Marchione broke the man’s wrist during a “hard takedown.”

Michael Settle is an Acting Police Sergeant Detective specializing in human trafficking. Little is know about Settle beyond a single investigation in 2010. 

A court hearing was initially scheduled for April 2, 2021, to review a temporary injunction, but that hearing was declared moot. 

Andrew Myerberg, the director of the OPA, told NPR, that officers are entitled to their political views, and the investigation will look into whether SPD policy was violated. The OPA added that if the officers committed federal crimes, they would work together with federal investigators.

The OPA has 180 days to release its findings of the officer’s activities to the public. Those results would be published in June and early July of 2021.

Malcontentment Happy Hour: April 22, 2021

Our live webcast from the former Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

Editors Note: There is approximately five minutes of audio problems during our segment on Pinal County Sheriff Julian Navarrette. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The show from April 22, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • Brandon Hole, FedEx mass shooter exposes Bronie culture’s attachments to white nationalism
  • Perth Amboy, New Jersey and its bizarre bicycle laws
  • Killology and Dave Grossman and fear-based police training – killing in the name of…

Breaking: Governor Inslee orders criminal investigation into Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer

[OLYMPIA] – (MTN) Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Friday ordered the state attorney general office to investigate Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer, and his actions on January 27, 2021, involving a Black newspaper carrier.

“The initial reports of these events were very concerning to me, and I had hoped to see some action taken to initiate a criminal investigation at the local level,” Inslee said in a written statement released Friday. “But, to my knowledge, that has not happened almost three months after the incident. So now the state is stepping in. I have spoken to Attorney General Ferguson and his office will conduct this investigation and make the decision whether to initiate prosecution.”

Due to the inaction of Tacoma Police and Pierce County, Gov. Inslee sent a letter to the Criminal Justice Division of Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office.

On January 27, 2021, Ed Troyer called 911 to report that a man had threatened to kill him and was acting suspiciously driving slowly from house to house. That man was Sedrick Altheimer, who is a newspaper carrier and was delivering papers on his route. Troyer followed Altheimer in his personal vehicle, never identified himself as a law enforcement officer, and reported he had blocked Altheimer’s vehicle.

Troyer repeated multiple times in the 911 call that he was threatened by Altheimer, and reported that he might be attempting to break into garages. Forty-two units from across Pierce County initially responded to the call, with six units arriving.

Troyer walked back his accusations when Tacoma police arrived. Tacoma police did not turn on their recently issued bodycams while talking to Troyer but did activate them when talking to Altheimer. Altheimer was never charged with a crime. When the story broke Troyer expressed surprise that a police report was even created.

The Pierce County Council voted on April 6 to pay former U.S. attorney Brian Moran $50,000 to look into Troyer’s behavior from January 2020 to January 2021 and investigate the incident with Altheimer. However, the investigator has no subpoena power and cannot put people under oath.

The January 2021 incident brought attention to a November 11, 2020, 911 call that Troyer made claiming to have confronted two Black men trying to break into his car and steal his wallet. In that incident when Tacoma police arrive Troyer brushed off the incident, and officers ultimately did not take a report. In March 2021, after the second incident occurred, the officer-involved with the November 11 911 call took an official report into that incident.

Seattle OPA investigation into SPD officer Eric Whitehead almost completed

SEATTLE] – (MTN) The Seatle Office of Police Accountability (OPA) opened an investigation into officer Eric Whitehead after a January 15, 2021 incident where he refused to wear a mask at an area hospital. In a follow-up with the OPA, a spokesperson told Malcontent News that the investigation is nearly complete and a report will be issued within two weeks.

Officer Whitehead was at an area hospital to get a statement from an assault victim and refused to wear a mask. According to a nurse in the emergency department, the officer “blatantly refused” to put a mask on despite COVID positive patients nearby and standing in a “high traffic” hallway.

The staff at the unnamed hospital gave the officer masks multiple times, that he repeatedly threw away. The nurse escalated to the Charge Nurse after the officer became belligerent, and was “condescending” with her. The Charge Nurse then notified the Nursing Supervisor, and the officer finally put on a mask.

The compliance was short-lived, with officer Whitehead stating that he would take the mask off when he went into the patient room, potentially exposing the victim of assault to COVID. Despite a larger police presence, the staff noted that no other officers interceded on the behalf of the hospital, to ask Whitehead to put on a mask.

Although no hospital was identified in the investigation, Harborview has come under fire from the rank and file of Seattle Police through the group Safe Seattle. On November 21, 2020, an anonymous source complained about the “vibe,” in a Facebook post“It used to be friendly. Now it’s either like we are invisible and they can’t see us at all… or they will stare at us. We used to have conversations and joke around with HMC folks, but the vibe has changed. Jail staff have noticed it, too, when they have to do hospital watches. Sure, it’s not all the staff to be clear, but the vibe has definitely tensed up.”

In another post, anonymous Seattle police officers complained that free snacks were no longer available for them in the emergency department. After a COVID-19 outbreak in the medical center sickened 13 and killed at least one, hospital administration identified that lax mask policy in break rooms while eating food likely contributed to the infections. As a result, UWM banned all food, including single-serving packages from all areas of the hospital except the cafeteria for anyone who is not a patient.

Malcontentment Happy Hour: April 14, 2021

Our live webcast from the former Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

The show from April 14, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • US Army drill instructor Jonathan Pentland arrested after video shows racist assault of Black autistic man
  • Kim Potter of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police is arrested for second degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Daunte Wright
  • Derek Chauvin Trial update
  • Eastside Restaurant Support Week is about to begin

Parents and community leaders demand action during Saturday rally in Marysville

Updated: April 5, 2021 @ 9:30 AM to include a statement from the Marysville police.

[MARYSVILLE] – (MTN) Parents and students gathered in Comeford Park on Saturday to express their anger at the Marysville School District’s handling of threats against students. JJ Frank, the parent of a student threatened with death due to her race, held a press conference with city, county, and Black leaders, speaking to a diverse crowd of supporters.

“I’m here in the capacity as a father,” Frank told the crowd. “I’m hearing that these students that made these death threats said it was just a joke. When another student threatens another student’s life and says that they want to kill him, that is not a joke.”

“When another student threatens another student’s life that threatens all of our children’s lives, let us not turn a blind eye because these were Black students and minority students that our lives are any less,” Frank continued. “Black lives do matter.”

Two students at Marysville Pilchuck High School made death threats in December 2020. In that incident, which Malcontent News reported, the students received a short suspension and moved to a different high school. The Snohomish County prosecutor officers did not pursue charges stating that one family did not want to press charges and the students posed a low risk after a threat assessment. They were both referred to a deferment program through the juvenile court. Malcontent News is not naming the students or victims as they are juveniles.

Frank spoke about the incident during his speech on Saturday in vivid detail. “They said, what about that n*****’s sister? They said, yeah, we want to kill that n******.” This is in the police report.”

“They said that they wanted to kill my daughter, my 15-year-old daughter,” Frank said fighting back his tears as Black leaders gathered around him to provide support.

Screen capture of the Snapchat threat made on the same account as a student that made death threats in a December 2020 Zoom meeting

In the second incident, a January 2021 Snapchat message stating, “killing minorities soon,” showing a white hand holding a handgun, was made from the same phone and e-mail address of one of the students involved in the Zoom meeting. That student denies that they made the post and that a 20-years old relative did it. The 20-year old has not been named but is a son of a Marysville police officer. Because of the conflict of interest, Marysville police moved the criminal investigation to the Snohomish County Sheriff.

Frank accused the Marysville School District of misrepresented the status of the students after this second incident. He claims the district told him the students had been removed from school again, which they haven’t.

In response to growing media coverage, the school district released a statement. “In recent days, information about incidents against students of color, specifically Black/African American students, were shared publicly in the news, on social media, and through community forums. These incidents included online threats made against Black/African American students and confirms Marysville School District’s recognition and acknowledgment that racism and hate continue to exist in our community.”

“We will strive to do everything in our power to make certain that each student we serve feels safe physically, socially, emotionally, and free from racial or other forms of discrimination.”

For Marysville residents, many we spoke to expressed concern about the existing threats, given the history of a prior mass shooting event at Marysville Pilchuck High School. Later in the afternoon, a Black Lives Matter rally was held on the Salvation Army’s roof about a mile away. As a band played and a small group solicited support from the cars passing by, many drivers honked and waved. One person confronted the group briefly, asking when they would start breaking windows. A couple of pickup trucks circled the group, with one driver making a white power symbol as they created a black cloud of exhaust.

According to a KOMO news article, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s department has completed its investigation into the January incident and has recommended criminal charges to the prosecutor’s office.

The Marysville Police also released a statement on April 2. ” I want to update the Marysville community that this investigation is now complete. The Major Crimes Detectives from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office have referred this case to the Snohomish County Prosecutor with a recommended charge of hate crime, RCW 9A.36.080(7). The Sheriff’s office can answer further questions on their investigation.”

Frank and his supporters want further action. “If Jason Thompson, who’s on administrative leave, and Lori Knudson acting deputy superintendent, Rod Merrell, and the consortium consultants do not resign, we are asking Vanessa Edwards, the school board president and the board of directors to use their authority to terminate their employment immediately. This leadership must end, and enough is enough.”

Because it is a holiday weekend, the Marysville School District, the Snohomish County Prosector’s Office, and a public information officer with the Snohomish County Sheriff were not available for comment.

Incidents in Kirkland and Marysville high schools highlight a racial divide

[KIRKLAND] – (MTN) Over the past year, racial incidents have occurred in multiple suburban school districts highlighting inequality in our schools. In Kirkland, old wounds reopened from an incident at Juanita High School, while in Marysville, an ongoing criminal investigation is looking into death threats at Pilchuck High School.

In Marysville, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department is investigating racist threats made by a relative of a Marysville Police officer. The unnamed 20-year old allegedly used the account of a Marysville High School student to send a Snapchat image holding a handgun, with the caption “Getting ready to kill minorities.” The Snapchat account used was the same account of a 16-year old student suspended earlier this year for making death threats to Black students in a Zoom meeting.

Our coverage and full interview with dr. janice greene of the Snohomish county naacp

“You have our kids getting ready to go back to school. They’re going to be face-to-face, you’ve got people threatening their lives and there’s doesn’t seem to be anything happening,” said Dr. Janice Greene, President of the Snohomish County NAACP. “Children of color are going to [that] school. They don’t feel protected. They can’t. How do you learn in that environment?”

Located about 30 miles north of downtown Seattle, Marysville borders the Tulalip Indian Reservation. The community has experienced rapid growth in the last 20 years, with more than 65,000 residents calling the city home. Once known as Strawberry City with a quaint downtown, Marysville has transformed into a bedroom community next to a vast outlet shopping center and sprawling casino complex. Before COVID-19, bumper-to-bumper traffic clogged Interstate-5 with commuters, gamblers, and shoppers.

When Marysville officials learned that a police officer’s relative made the threat, the county sheriff department took over the case. Officials say that the investigation will conclude in April. However, Washington governor Jay Inslee has ordered a return to in-class instruction by April 19, 2021.

“You’re sending our kids back into school with threats hanging in the air,” Dr. Greene went on to say. “People are not being held accountable with that. People not having to deal with the consequences of their behavior.”

Dr. Greene also talked about the challenges for victims of racial incidents. “I’m concerned about the way we keep pulling our young people that are racially traumatized out in front of people to tell their story over and over again. So we retraumatize our children.”

She added, “I’m going to say Marysville right now is at the crux of it, but that’s not. They’re not the only ones.” To both those points, Kirkland’s Lake Washington School District highlights both of these challenges.

An incident at Kirkland Juanita High School has remerged. In early 2020, a conflict between students devolved into a Black student being called a racial slur. A school guard who intervened is also accused of using a racial slur in the incident. In that incident, it isn’t clear what action the District took against the guard or offending student. As COVID-19 gripped the region less than two-months later, community attention shifted to remote learning.

Over the summer, the high school wrestled with its mascot, “The Rebels.” Some viewed the imagery as too close to the Confederate flag. Historically, a rebel was picked as the mascot because Juanita High School was founded as an alternative learning school. During the 1980s, the artwork of the mascot was modified to add stars and bars with more than a passing resemblance to the Confederate battle flag. In the end, students voted to eliminate the mascots and become the ravens.

We reached out to the Lake Washington School District for additional information, and they released a statement. “Lake Washington School District has been made aware that there are concerns being shared in the community about an incident that occurred over a year ago at Juanita High School. The District is reviewing the incident in further detail and has communicated directly with stakeholders on this matter.”

“Lake Washington School District is committed to providing safe and inclusive learning and working environments for our students and staff.”

We reached out to the parties involved, but none of them wanted to comment on the record. Our ongoing investigation has learned that a public records request was recently made into the incident.

As for the next steps, Dr. Greene had a clear vision for Marysville. “We would like to see appropriate charges and actions for the young people that made the threats [and] for the 20-year old that was holding the gun. We’d also like for Snohomish County [to] put some type of oversight so that we can see what’s going on outside of the school districts. So you have a community-type oversight, so we can address these issues when they come up.”

In both communities, it appears fast action won’t be forthcoming. Students are returning to classrooms after a polarizing election year and George Floyd’s death. Protests in more than 650 cities and towns across the United States erupted – including Kirkland and Marysville. Students have interacted within tighter groups over the last year due to COVID. Polarized conversations on politics and race are unreconciled, just as children and teens are coming back together to learn. It can be a powderkeg, and historically, Marysville Pilchuck High School is no stranger to gun violence.

Snohomish County NAACP demands criminal investigation into racial strife at Marysville Pilchuck High School

[MARYSVILLE] Extracurricular activity can open doors for secondary education and help lay a foundation for continued growth. Online threats toward a target list of Black students in December 2020 have spilled over into ongoing hate speech and targeting through social media.

On December 14, 2020, in an Associated Student Body Junior Leadership virtual meeting, things took an ugly turn for Marysville Pilchuck High School students. Two students during a Zoom meeting stated, “let’s kill all Black people,” and then went on to identify several Black students by name in the call.

A criminal investigation followed, and Marysville police interviewed two impacted Black families. According to police and a press release from the NAACP, one family stated they did not want to pursue charges. The two students that made the statements received suspensions from school and transferred to a different facility.

On January 28, 2021, a different student came forward and provided images of Snapchat conversations. In one of the screenshots, one of the students involved in the December incident was brandishing a handgun with the caption, “killing minorities soon.” The student who reported this went on to state this wasn’t the first time this type of comment was made.

The Marysville School District released a statement saying in part, “[The Marysville School District] will absolutely not tolerate hateful, racist speech or actions. Our job is to denounce hate and intimidation where we work, create environments where students feel safe to learn, and hold students accountable for their words or actions consistent with the law.”

In a press release the Snohomish County NAACP wrote, “We call for the Marysville Police Department and the Snohomish County Prosecutor to pursue the issue as a hate crime and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent the law allows.

Marysville Pilchuck High School is no stranger to gun violence. On October 24, 2014, 15-year-old freshman Jaylen Fryberg shot five, killing four, before committing suicide in the school cafeteria. A year later, his father, Raymond Fryberg, was arrested and convicted for illegally purchasing the gun used in the mass shooting.

In December of 2018, the school was placed on lockdown after a group of students got into a brawl. There was a large police response and the campus was closed at 12:45 PM in that incident.