Seattle cop arrested for assaulting, imprisoning his wife
Content note: This post contains descriptions of domestic violence throughout.
Seattle Police Officer Marlon Williams-Booth was arrested in late May for allegedly trapping his wife in a room, grabbing her by the hair, throwing her to the ground, and pressing the frame of a gun to her neck, according to a police report DivestSPD recently obtained.
On the evening of May 28, Thurston County deputies were dispatched to Williams-Booth’s home in Yelm for a welfare check. He had called a sergeant at the Seattle Police Department and told him that his wife pulled a gun on him. Dispatchers described him as “frantic” and “crying.”
Deputies spoke to Williams-Booth, who was hostile and apparently drunk. One deputy noted that his thoughts seemed disorganized, and he bounced from one subject to another.
Williams-Booth “quickly divulged” that he was a Seattle police officer. He was suspicious and repeatedly accused the two deputies of reaching for their firearms. Aside from repeating over and over that his wife had pulled a gun on him, Williams-Booth would not describe what had happened earlier.
According to the report, he was aggressive and clenched his fist while he talked. The deputies left and took a statement from Williams-Booth’s wife at a hotel.
The incident
The alleged assault occurred on a Friday. She said that tensions had been mounting the entire week since an incident on Monday, when one of their three boys, whose ages range from 3 to 10, poked another one on his behind with a finger and made a farting noise. Williams-Booth called this “sexual assault,” but his wife described it as “innocent.”
His wife had been contemplating a separation and told him on the night of the altercation that she was leaving him. At Williams-Booth’s insistence, she always carried her firearm when she left the house. She was grabbing her laptop from the home office when he came in and blocked the only exit.
He asked her if she was carrying, and she patted the belly holster where her 9mm pistol was kept. Then, she said, Williams-Booth lunged at her and pinned her up against the wall. He pulled the gun from the holster, grabbed her by the hair, and took her to the ground.
While they were on the ground, Williams-Booth had the frame of the gun pressed against the side of her throat. It had a loaded magazine but not a round in the chamber. She tried to take her phone from her purse to call 911, and the two struggled over the purse until the strap ripped. Eventually, she double-kicked him in the chest and escaped out the window, leaving behind her weapon and purse.
A Thurston County detective investigated the incident and found the evidence was consistent with his wife’s account. The detective found clumps of hair where the struggle occurred. Her purse strap was ripped, as she described. His wife had injuries on her lip and nose.
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office developed probable cause to arrest Williams-Booth for misdemeanor domestic violence assault and unlawful imprisonment.
Arrest
SPD command accompanied Thurston County deputies to take Williams-Booth into custody. On the way to jail, he continued to repeat his claim that his wife was in “crisis” and pulled a gun on him.
Alluding to his recent counterterrorism training for the World Cup, he said that he was doing all these trainings where people were jumping out and shooting at him. “Now I[’m] react[ing] to a woman in crisis, who’s my wife, tr[ying] to pull a gun out on me and rack one.”
He continued ranting, claiming to be “one of the elite heroes of downtown Seattle.” Williams-Booth told the arresting deputy, “You have no idea how many people at gunpoint I’ve killed… people that have confronted…how many people have shot at me.”
According to SPD records, Williams-Booth has never fired his weapon on duty or been fired upon.
He also blamed Sgt. Hoang, the sergeant he originally reported the incident to, for misinforming dispatch. “He doesn’t speak English. Literally, my sergeant has a language barrier.”
Williams-Booth’s wife filed for divorce a week after this incident. The petition merely asks for custody and an equitable distribution of assets. She did not request a protective order.
This is only the latest in a series of recent domestic violence incidents involving Seattle police officers or recruits:
Recruit Clayton Whitby was terminated after he reportedly threatened to punch his wife and lied to investigators.
Probationary Officer John Nguyen was terminated after a violent incident with his brother-in-law.
Officer Jonathan Goodwin was arrested and placed on paid leave after allegedly pushing his girlfriend down the stairs.
Richard Norris fired his weapon inside the house next to his wife.
Marlon Williams-Booth makes $146,557 base pay annually, excluding overtime.
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