Bodycam video of viral police beating shows officers instantly escalate

The Seattle Police Department made national headlines last year when two of its officers were caught on camera punching, kneeing, and hitting a man with a baton at a bus shelter in South Seattle. The video, shot by a rider on a passing bus, captured only part of the incident, but DivestSPD recently obtained the officers’ bodyworn video showing how it all started.

Officers were dispatched to a disturbance at a house near the bus shelter. According to the owner of the house, a man who had been evicted earlier that day charged workers who were throwing away his belongings. He pushed one with a walking stick and later tried to throw lit sticks of incense in the window. There were no injuries, and no property was damaged.

Officer Cody Alidon and Sergeant Nathan Patterson arrived and led the man to the bus shelter. Patterson said, “Sit your ass down.” Alidon ordered him to put his things down and told him, “You’re going in cuffs.”

The man pleaded with the officers to “stop being forceful,” and a few seconds afterward, Patterson, who can be seen in the video with his baton out in one hand, throws him down and starts hitting him repeatedly with it.

Throughout the encounter, Patterson hits the man nearly 20 times with his baton while Alidon punches and knees him. At one point, Patterson accidentally hit Alidon on the forearm.

Later, the man’s face is visibly bloody. It’s unclear if this is from baton strikes to the face or from when the officers smashed him against the wall of the bus shelter.

Excessive Force

The Office of Police Accountability sustained allegations that Patterson violated the department’s use of force and de-escalation policies. Though it initially sustained allegations against Alidon, the agency later revised its findings and issued a training referral.

While the investigation was completed in January, the police chief still has not issued discipline. Patterson is at or near retirement age and has been on leave since last year, so he may be burning off his leave and preparing to retire.

Since the OPA hasn’t released a final report yet, we don’t know what its precise reasoning was, but the policy violations are obvious. To start with, SPD policy states that force must be proportional to the “level of threat or resistance presented by the subject.” The man was argumentative, but he showed the lowest level of resistance: tensing his arms to prevent handcuffing.

The officers could’ve continued trying to get the man to comply voluntarily before resorting to force. Instead, they took him down and started beating him less than five seconds after telling him he was going into handcuffs. Furthermore, Patterson had his baton out from the jump, limiting his ability to opt for a “reasonable alternative,” i.e. using both hands to get the man’s arm behind his back.

Violent Record

Naita Saechao was passed out on a bed at a family party, when Seattle police woke him up and started beating him. Patterson struck him in the side repeatedly with his flashlight. The city settled with him for $90,000 plus $40,000 in attorney’s fees.

The only officer to beat someone with a baton in the last two years, Patterson is somewhat of a throwback. At a time when most Seattle police officers are using Tasers and 40mm launchers, Patterson prefers old-fashioned hands-on police violence.

While it may be rare for the department these days, batons are Patterson’s weapon of choice. In roughly. two decades on the force, he has been named in six lawsuits, most of which involved him and other officers beating people with batons or flashlights. Altogether, these suits have cost the city over $1.1 million in settlements and legal costs.

He famously bragged to protesters at the Northwest African-Americn Musuem about breaking his baton on someone at a party. He was referring to an incident where Patterson and other officers stormed a backyard party and beat a handcuffed man on the ground, according to the lawsuit, which cost the city $230,000.

In another incident, Patterson hit a 50-year-old Asian man, whom officers somehow mistook for a 20-something stabbing suspect, in the side with a flashlight.

More recently, Patterson was captured on camera punching a protester on the ground upwards of eight times. He was reprimanded for that. Patterson was also caught on his bodyworn camera joking about hitting “those people of color the hardest,” but the OPA ruled that it could not prove the comments showed bias.

Hired in 2005, Sgt. Nathan Patterson works the day shift in the South Precinct and made $155,765 in 2023.