SPD problem child avoids discipline for pummeling May 24 protester

A cop with a violent history will face no punishment for tackling a protest medic and punching them repeatedly during the Seattle police response to a protest in Cal Anderson Park last May, according to a preliminary report DivestSPD obtained.

Though the Office of Police Accountability found that Officer Caleb Howard’s force was excessive, it could not discipline Howard due to provisions in the old police guild contract.

On May 24, 2025, a fundamentalist Christian group called MayDay USA hosted an anti-trans concert titled “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” in Cal Anderson Park, located in the heart of the historically gay Capitol Hill neighborhood. Hundreds of people gathered to counterprotest the event.

Howard was a bike officer assigned to the Community Response Group, SPD’s euphemistically named anti-protest unit. The CRG rode into the park to arrest some protesters who had cut loose a few balloons from one of the Christian group’s booths, but they fled.

CRG chased the protesters into a crowd that turned hostile and began yelling at them. Howard dismounted his bike and ran through the crowd, where he spotted a protest medic wearing all black, standing next to another protester on the ground being arrested.

Howard tackled them from behind and immediately began punching them in the head and abdomen. Then, he suddenly jumped to another protester and started punching him.

The video footage contradicted every justification for force that Howard wrote in his report. He claimed that the medic was pushing the other officer while he was making an arrest, but the video showed them standing upright with their arms at their side. The medic did not “appear to commit a crime, pose a threat, resist, or attempt to escape,” the OPA wrote.

Howard wrote that the medic was resisting and grabbing at him. However, the video showed them consistently taking a defensive position. He also tried to claim that the medic kicked at him. Though the video does not show the medic’s legs, the OPA concluded that it was unlikely to have happened.

Only a couple of seconds passed between the tackle and the punches, so it was improbable that the behavior Howard alleged could “have occurred in any meaningful way during this brief period.” Also, Howard was positioned around the medic’s midsection, so they wouldn’t have been positioned to kick him.

Lastly, the fact that Howard left the medic and began punching another protester showed that he did not consider them a threat. If they had genuinely been assaultive, Howard would have arrested them.

The OPA sustained allegations that Howard used unnecessary force and failed to report his hard tackle, which he characterized as a “controlled takedown.” The department could not discipline Howard under the terms of the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract in effect at the time.

Under the contract, the 180-day investigation timeline for force complaints began once the sergeant submitted the complaint to the chain of command. The medic submitted this complaint in 2026 after the 180-day timeline had passed. This has resulted in several sustained force complaints going unpunished in the last few years.

Though the Office of the Inspector General’s Sentinel Event Review of the May 24 protests faulted the department for its aggressive tactics and failure to communicate with counterdemonstrators, the OPA was incredibly lenient toward individual officers.

Of the many complaints filed, the OPA only sustained one. Officer Brian Muoio was reprimanded for slamming into a protester with his bike. A different officer, Matthew Clark, was given retraining for shooting a protester in the back with a pepperball gun several times as he ran away.

The OPA initially sustained allegations for another violent incident, which occurred at the same time as Howard was punching the medic. DivestSPD flagged bodycamera footage showing Sgt. David Adams punch a protester eight times. The OPA found some of the punches excessive but walked its findings back under pressure from SPD command.

Another far more serious allegation—that Adams used force against a handcuffed prisoner—was ignored altogether, but the OPA opened a new investigation after DivestSPD filed a complaint. It is still ongoing.

This violent incident was far from Howard’s first. Early in his career, Howard got severely intoxicated at a party hosted by Officer Brandon Dorr, who also works in the CRG unit. He attempted to ply Dorr’s underage daughter with alcohol and sexually harassed her.

Then, Howard challenged Dorr’s teenage son to a wrestling match, choked him, and punched him while accusing him of sleeping with his girlfriend. When Dorr attempted to intervene, Howard punched him in the face.

He avoided jail time through an agreement with the prosecutor and was suspended for 30 days.

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