King County prosecutors charged two May Day protesters with third-degree assault Wednesday. Both are accused of assaulting Seattle police officers during Sunday’s protest through downtown Seattle.
Two May Day protesters were charged Wednesday with felony third-degree assault on Seattle police officers, one accused of biting a plainclothes detective and the other for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at officers, according to King County prosecutors.
Cases involving at least four other protesters were referred to the Seattle City Attorney’s Office for a charging decision, but are still being reviewed, according to a spokesman. At least four people were arrested Sunday night when an unpermitted anti-capitalist march turned violent.
As protesters left Westlake Park and headed north on Fourth Avenue around 6:30 p.m., three plainclothes detectives saw three people — one male and two females — removing their all-black, outer layer of clothing, charging papers say.
“This is consistent with the behavior of protesters in previous demonstrations who had committed acts of crime and quickly removed their black attire to avoid detection by police,” charging papers say.
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One detective began video-recording them and asked one of the women why the group had changed their clothes, according to the charges.
The woman — identified as Samuel Darwin Krueger, 26 — immediately confronted the detective, used profanity and took a swing at him but missed, charging papers say. The detective failed to land a counterpunch but took Krueger to the ground, pressing his forearm against her cheek to get her to stop resisting arrest. Krueger bit the detective’s arm hard enough to break the skin, according to the charges.
The detective was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he was given antibiotics.
The charging documents refer to Krueger as female. However, her gender is listed as male on one form included in charging documents. The King County Jail also had Krueger’s gender listed as male.
Krueger was released from jail Monday evening after posting $15,000 bail, jail records show. A warrant was issued for her arrest after she was charged Wednesday. Though her last known address is in Seattle, charging papers say she has no ties to King County and claims to live and work in Olympia.
About an hour after Krueger’s arrest, a SWAT officer saw protesters throwing bottles and rocks at a line of uniformed officers near Fourth Avenue South and Seattle Boulevard South. The bottles were filled with a liquid that smelled like gasoline and had a white cloth sticking out of the tops, say the charges, though there is no mention of them being lit.
The SWAT officer was about 50 yards away when he picked Wesley Nielsen, a 23-year-old Seattle man, out of the crowd. “What drew my attention to Wesley was the fact that he was tall (and) his hair was up on top of his head in a ‘man bun’ type hair style,” says the officer’s report.
The officer saw Nielsen throw a bottle, which exploded at the officers’ feet, the charges say. He then tried to filter back into the crowd, undoing his man bun as he walked.
The SWAT officer pointed Nielsen out and two bike officers quickly arrested him, charging papers say.
Nielsen remains jailed in lieu of $20,000 bail, according to jail records.