Father of protester killed on I-5 calls for firing of detective under investigation for social media posts

SEATTLE — The father of 24-year-old Summer Taylor, the protester who was killed on I-5 early Saturday morning, called for King County detective Mike Brown to be fired immediately for Facebook posts that seemed to make light of the fatal crash.

“There are a lot of hateful people saying hateful things about my child who’s gone,” Matt Taylor said Wednesday. “Including people at the King County Sheriff’s (Office).”

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In the hours following the early Saturday morning crash, Brown posted a meme on Facebook, which shows people getting hit by a truck and the words “All Lives Splatter.”

King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht on Monday said her office received multiple complaints about the posts on Sunday night and ordered that the internal investigation be expedited.

Brown, who’s been with the Sheriff’s Office for 40 years, was placed on leave and has been relieved of all police powers during the investigation.

Johanknecht said the investigation will include other sheriff’s office employees who may have participated by reacting or commenting on the post.

Johanknecht would not say how many posts were under investigation. Although Brown’s page has now been taken down, KIRO 7 found another post where he wrote, “I see a couple of people got infected with Covid-19 from the hood of a car on I-5 last night.”

Taylor also called for the firings of any employees who interacted with the post.

“I think anybody who was liking it, sharing it or doing anything else with it should all be fired,” Taylor said. “I think that’s beyond obvious. It’s disgusting and unfathomable.”

On Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee took to Twitter to issue a statement in response to Brown’s post. In his tweet, he indicated Brown is his cousin.

Cox Media Group