One cop threatened to beat another 'to death' over botched bust
One cop threatened to beat another 'to death' over botched bust
After he was dressed down for blowing a drug investigation, Ofc. Ryan Rose said he wanted to show another officer how they do things "in Texas."
Seattle police officer Ryan Rose challenged another cop to a fight after he “Leeroy Jenkins’d” a drug investigation last fall, according to a newly released report by the Office of Police Accountability.
In September, Ofc. Seth Romeo responded to a call from a man who said he witnessed people selling drugs near the intersection of 24th Ave S and S Washington. He sent out a radio call notifying other officers to stay out of the area. According to his written statement, Romeo planned to observe from a nearby balcony, but as he was walking to the building, Rose drove up 24th and stopped at the scene, causing the purported drug suspects to flee.
He’s not sneaky at all. He fucking Leeroy Jenkins’d this fucking call, bro.
Two other responding officers, Nicholas Burgess and Alejandro Alcazar, told Romeo that Rose “blew” the call and mocked him, calling him a “fucking idiot.” Alcazar said, laughing, “He thinks he was being sneaky,” to which Burgess replied, “He’s not sneaky at all. He fucking Leeroy Jenkins’d this fucking call, bro,” referring to a World of Warcraft meme about a player ruins a battle plan by charging in.
Romeo contacted Rose to discuss what he did wrong. He told Rose that he should’ve signed on to the call and advised the primary officer of his presence. While he was initially apologetic, Rose became angry when Romeo declined his request to talk to him more one-on-one. Romeo wrote that he believed Rose would escalate if that happened and preferred to speak in front of Alcazar and Burgess, who were parked nearby.
Rose called Romeo a “pussy” and said he was afraid to talk to him “man to man.” Romeo told Rose, who was hired in 2020, that he should defer to officers with more experience and that Rose was “low on the metaphorical totem pole.” Rose challenged him to a fight, telling Romeo, “I swear on my two kids, I got you on anything physical, jiujitsu, wrestling, etc.”
He is lucky that I am not off duty. I would drag him out the car and beat him to death.
Burgess intervened and stepped between the two officers, saying, “This isn't how we handle things.” Rose told Romeo, “See, you’re the type to run to a supervisor. In Texas, we do things differently.”
He later told Burgess, “He is lucky that I am not off duty. I would drag him out the car and beat him to death.” According to Romeo’s statement, Rose was “triggered” by Burgess saying that Rose “thinks he’s demonstrating strength, but it’s really showing mental/emotional weaknes.” Burgess said Rose’s veins were bulging in his forehead, and his eyes were “glazed over.”
Romeo added, “I fully believe Ofc. Rose is incapable of the emotional and mental control needed to not act on an impulse to assault me.” Rose was placed on administrative leave, pending investigation, and given counseling at SPD’s Wellness Unit.
In his OPA interview, Rose claimed he intended to challenge Romeo to a “physical feat” like wrestling at Park 90/5, SPD’s training gym. He also said that his comments about beating Romeo “to death” were made out of anger and frustration about being disrespected as a newer officer and a minority.
Ultimately, OPA did not find Rose violated any laws because mutual combat is legal in Washington, and his statements did not meet the definition of a criminal threat. However, OPA sustained professionalism allegations and Rose was given an oral reprimand, the lowest form of discipline.
Rose is currently facing an Equal Employment complaint—and it isn’t his first. Another officer filed an EEO complaint against Rose while at the police academy. The complainant alleged that Rose and another officer bullied him and were dishonest. The OPA found most of those allegations inconclusive, citing a lack of independent corroboration.
I was arrested by Ofc. Rose a little over 2 years ago in Seattle and charged with a DUI. I had just got off work and was parked on the side of the street filling out my timesheet and submitting other work related reports, documents, and expenses for the client jobs I had worked that day and were due before EoD at midnight. While doing this on my phone, parked on the side of the street, I had fallen asleep because filling out timesheets and submitting expense reports is boring and I was tired having worked over 12 hours that day. I was woken up to Ofc. Rose accompanied by 6 other SPD officers yelling and shining their flashlights towards me and grabbing me and pulling me out of the driver seat of my car. I explained everything that I have mentioned here to Ofc. Rose and insisted that I am not intoxicated and that he is making a mistake. He asked me if I would submit to a breathalyzer test and I responded emphatically with a yes officer please test me so that you and your colleagues can see I am telling the truth and that you're making a mistake. Ofc. Rose then says he is not going to breathalyze me but instead wants to do a FST.
At this point it was becoming clear to me that Ofc. Rose was upset and agitated because he probably thought he was 100% going to be ending his shift that night with a successful DUI arrest, he even had called 6 other of his officer buddies over to make himself look good (or is that standard procedure for DUI probable cause encounters for cops to call in soo many backups?). While this was all happening I got the sense that the other officers knew that I was obviously not intoxicated and had simply dosed off in a parked car and in reality Ofc. Rose had majorly misjudged the situation and made a mistaken call. Of course none of them said anything of such to me or in front of me, and I'm not sure if they even brought it up with Ofc. Rose. But after reading these reports online about Ofc. Rose and his "lack of professionalism," his hotheadedness, "his childish mental and emotional instability and weakness," I'm not sure any of them would have risked their life giving constructive criticism to Ofc. Rose who is clearly an out of control crazy firecracker about to explode at any moment. (those are direct quotes from other SPD officers regarding Ofc. Rose which they had an altercation between them and Ofc. Rose had threatened to beat to death another SPD senior officer).
SPD needs to put a tight leash on this out of control feral dog of theirs before he follows through on the violent threats he has made against his fellow SPD colleagues. And if that's how he behaves with his fellow officers; just imagine how much worst it has to be with public and residents of Seattle