Rough detention at Golden Gardens ends in bruised rib

Seattle police, looking for someone who stole a car and crashed it, mistakenly detained a man on an early morning walk and knelt on his back, injuring him.

Peter Donovan was out for an early morning stroll in February when he says two Seattle police officers stopped him, ordered him to the ground at gunpoint, and knelt on his back, bruising or possibly fracturing his ribs.

North Precinct Officer John Randle and his partner were looking for an intoxicated driver who had crashed near Golden Gardens and fled the scene. Donovan was walking on the Burke-Gilman Trail close to the park’s entrance. The two officers detained Donovan because he was the only person near where the collision occurred.

When they walked up to him, shining a flashlight in his face, Donovan asked if he could take out his phone and record. Randle said that he could, but when Donovan pulled out his phone, the officer commanded him to get on his stomach and told him he was under arrest.

Donovan said he believed that they pulled their guns on him at this point, but it was difficult to tell with the flashlight shining in his eyes. Randle and his partner knelt on Donovan’s back, pressing his chest into the concrete. His phone was recording, but only captured audio. In the recording, Donovan can be heard crying out, “You’re hurting me.”

In his report, Randle explained his decision to handcuff Donovan. He said that Donovan’s fingertips were bleeding, which resembled airbag injuries he had observed in “dozens of vehicle collisions.”

However, it should be noted that while hand injuries are common in airbag deployments, they’re typically fractures, friction burns, or deep lacerations around the thumb, not light bleeding on the fingertips. Donovan explained that he bites his nails when he’s anxious.

Randle also attempted to shore up his basis for the stop by describing Donovan as “sweating” and “pacing” when he pulled up. Donovan disputes this, saying he was walking a straight line up the trail and was not visibly sweating when he briefly appeared on the cell phone video.

After placing Donovan in the back of the police cruiser, Randle went back to the crash site and saw a circular dent on the windshield with long bits of brown hair coming from the glass, meaning the driver must have hit his head. He checked Donovan’s head and found no injuries, then released him.

Donovan went to the doctor later that day and reported pain in his rib. The doctor told him to come back if it got worse. Over the next few days, Donovan could feel the pain progressively worsen. The doctor found that his symptoms were consistent with a fractured or bruised rib. Though it didn’t appear on the X-ray, the doctor said tests frequently fail to capture hairline fractures in the rib area.

The Office of Police Accountability is currently investigating this case.