SEATTLE — Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz on Friday fired two officers who were at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. This comes exactly six months after the attack on the Capitol, and after a monthslong investigation determined that they had violated Washington law.
The Office of Police Accountability investigated six Seattle police officers who were close to the U.S. Capitol when it came under attack from insurrectionists on Jan. 6.
The FBI shared still pictures taken from video showing that two married Seattle Police Department officers were beyond barriers and outside the capitol at the time Washington police declared a riot.
“You stated that you had no idea that the event had turned violent, that nothing in your view indicated ongoing violence,” Chief Diaz wrote about officers Alexander Everett and Caitlin Rochelle Everett in each of their disciplinary action reports.
“It defies belief that you could think this situation was ‘peaceful’ or that you were not on notice that you were trespassing,” Diaz said.
Diaz terminated both officers, saying they had trespassed at the Capitol in violation of Washington law.
“Obviously the events at the Capitol have been mired in politics, and we expected this to happen and we prepared, we prepared accordingly,” said Seattle Police Guild President Mike Solan.
Solan says the guild will defend the officers if they decide to appeal, and he says the case against them has holes.
“We need a timeline, as far as the timestamp of those two photographs could capture by the FBI in that video, and that doesn’t exist.”
Asked why a timestamp would make a difference if the pictures show the officers standing at the Capitol while people scaled the walls, Solan replied, “It’s a good question. I think it would basically give them more of a succinct timeframe of to your point when the capital was breached, what they did witness at the time.”
Chief Diaz declined a KIRO 7 interview request, but guild president Mike Solan told me that the SPD had already scheduled an appointment with the officers to terminate them, even before hearing a final defense from union leaders.
The Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC) issued a statement noting that Seattle Police had more officers at the Capitol that day than any other police department in the country. The CPC said it “continues to demand SPD transparently, aggressively and publicly address extremism in the ranks.”
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