Police Guild: Patrol officers staged 'sick-out' during Seattle's busiest weekend
SEATTLE - Seattle Police last weekend were overwhelmed and understaffed to handle a deadly shooting in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on Saturday—which was all part of a sick-out organized by patrol officers.
This is according to the Mike Solan, President of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, in a video posted to Twitter.
"On Saturday night, we had about half of patrol operations not show up for work," Solan explained.
That disclosure sheds further light on new video of Saturday's illegal street race in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Footage released by SPD Wednesday shows people in the crowd jumping onto patrol cars, and appears to show a man with a skateboard threatening one of the officers.
"When the crowd did turn on the police officers and began to jump up and down on the hood throw items at the car—throw metal objects at the police cars, and they began to back up, they called for additional resources from around the department to help to stabilize the situation," said Deputy Chief Eric Barden. "It was at that time the shooting occurred and officers responded to that shooting, they were—still some of that crowd was resistant as officers moved in to provide medical aid."
Ultimately, police were forced to back away and de-escalate the situation. But hours later, four people in the crowd were shot. Seattle Police confirmed to FOX 13 News on Wednesday that one of the victims died from their injuries.
Solan says there are around 80 officers available to respond to 911 calls on a typical Saturday, but only about half of them reported for duty Saturday.
"The communities that we professionally serve and protect aren't protected, that's the reality of the situation," said Solan, "so, if you dig out of 2020 and that defunding [the police] nonsense, and you fast-forward three years later, you're seeing the results of that naïve and drastic decision."
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VIDEO: Unruly crowd forces back Seattle Police at illegal street race, 4 people later shot
New dashcam footage released by Seattle Police shows an unruly crowd forcing a patrol car back at an illegal street racing event. Four people were shot there hours later, one of them critically injured.
FOX 13 News asked Seattle Police officials about available staffing levels Saturday night, and the department denied there was a sick-out—they said, instead, that a large number of 911 calls had spread officers thin.