Seattle protesters seek recompense for injury and death linked to police action

Twelve protesters or their families have filed financial claims against Seattle, King county or Washington state following injuries and a death during recent anti-racist protests that they allege were caused by excessive force by police or due to law enforcement failing to protect them.

“You go to protest, you go for a cause, you go because you’re moved to make society better, you’re moved really in a selfless act, for most of these people who have just a passion and belief that something needs to change, something is not good here and it needs to change,” said Karen Koehler, whose firm represents most of the claimants. “And you’re met with riot police.”

Malichi Howel, 17, was protesting in the early evening on 30 May when police started firing teargas at the crowd, according to the claim. Howel tried to run, but was hit by an exploding flash-bang grenade or teargas canister that partially amputated their thumb.

Related: Outrage at video showing child who was maced by police at Seattle protest

Armand Avery described a scene in his own claim that took place in the same area a few hours earlier in which he and his seven-year-old son were peacefully protesting with three generations of their African American family. Within 45 minutes, he said, the pair was maced by police.

Seattle, King county and Washington have 60 days to respond to the claims and potentially resolve them before lawsuits are filed. None of the claims ask for a specific dollar amount.

Police violence in the face of mostly peaceful protests has become a theme of the nationwide civil rights demonstrations triggered by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. Protesters have been teargassed, beaten, hit with rubber bullets and kettled.

In Seattle, some claimants described suffering from injuries due to officers using excessive force, but others say they suffered as a result of law enforcement exposing them “to reasonably foreseeable dangers from counter protesters or other law breakers”.

Daniel Gregory, for example, tried to stop a man he feared was driving into a crowd of hundreds of protesters in Seattle, after police “made no attempt” to prevent cars from entering the area, according to the claim. Gregory reached inside the car to grab the steering wheel, but was shot in the arm by the driver.

The claims were all filed against the city of Seattle except the one filed by the family of Summer Taylor, a protester killed when a man drove through a group of demonstrators walking on a closed freeway in Seattle.

Koehler explained that since Taylor was hit on a freeway that is under the auspices of the Washington state patrol, and the claim also involves a meme allegedly posted hours after the crash on Facebook by a King county sheriff’s office deputy that said, “All lives splatter. Keep your ass off the road,” they filed claims against the city, county and state.

A spokesperson for the city of Seattle and one for the office of the King county executive, Dow Constantine, said they did not typically comment on ongoing litigation. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“Ultimately we have a freedom of speech issue in the city of Seattle,” said James Bible, a lawyer for Armand Avery and his son, along with Nikita Tarver, who was shot in the eye by a projectile during a protest. “We have work to do in terms of protecting the rights to protest, protecting the right to speak freely.”

Bible said he expected to see similar claims filed in the near future.

Koehler said her law firm examined a wide array of reports and video of these injuries and discovered they each involved a clear lack of communication from police.

“If they are communicating it, you can’t hear it, it’s indecipherable, it’s unintelligible,” she said. “You don’t hear them say, ‘hey we’re going to start doing this in such and such time if you don’t clear out by now.’”

Last month, a federal judge banned the use of teargas, pepper spray and flash-bang grenades, following a lawsuit filed by Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County and the ACLU of Washington on behalf of demonstrators who say they were injured by the Seattle police. That ban will be in place at least through September.

Last week, seven of the nine-member city council announced their support of a 50% reduction of the $409m police budget this year. They are expected to vote in early August.