September was a deadly month for King County police
This week, DivestSPD identified the four Seattle police officers who restrained and knelt on Keenan Pearson in September before he died: Serge Avakian, Noah Buchanan, Lorenzo Moore and Chelby Bragg. When the federal consent decree was lifted last year, the Seattle police stopped releasing the names of officers who use deadly force. Since then, there has been one in-custody death, three fatal shootings, and one non-fatal shooting. As 2027-2028 budget sessions progress, victims of police violence and their families are demanding that the city allocate $50,000 to establish an office for supporting victims of police violence. This drop in the bucket of the overall city budget would help offset the high costs grieving families face. Keenan Pearson’s family has set up a GoFundMe for funeral costs and attorney fees as they pursue accountability and justice. A vigil for Keenan will take place this Saturday, Oct. 10.
In addition to the in-custody death of Keenan Pearson and the nonfatal shooting of a Beacon Hill woman in September, there was also a fatal police shooting by Federal Way police last month. Per the King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office, September was the worst month so far in 2026 for police violence in King County, with three incidents listed. Of the nine deadly force incidents in the county this year, four were by Federal Way police and three by SPD.
Prosecutor: Deputy who stabbed a man to death was ‘justified’
Elsewhere in Washington, Clark County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file criminal charges against Deputy Bryson Layton for fatally stabbing Marc Fogle 17 times last year, deeming that deadly stabbing “justified.” A recent lawsuit by Fogle’s family alleges that Deputy Layton used an unauthorized “personal dagger“ and intentionally deactivated his body-worn camera before stabbing Fogle. The Washington State Office of Independent Investigations investigated the stabbing. Detectives traveled to the scene directly from another fatal police shooting by Kitsap County Sheriff’s and Poulsbo police that occurred just hours earlier.
Spokane cops bond over the massacre of a mentally ill man
Newly released texts show Spokane officers yukking it up an hour after the 2024 shooting of Joshua Musselman and trying to get their stories straight. The exchanges came to light through a lawsuit Musselman’s family filed earlier this year. Spokane police gunned down Musselman while he was having a mental health crisis a few days after Christmas. Musselman was standing outside his front door rolling a joint. When he bent down to pick something up, four officers opened fire. The only weapon found was an Airsoft gun. In the texts, first published by RANGE Media, the officers seemed more worried about people poking fun at their marksmanship than they were distraught about ending a person’s life. Officer Daniel Valencia texted that he was “pissed” that the “two of us shot 10 rounds each and the fucker only got shot four times.” The officers admitted they didn’t even have probable cause to arrest Musselman: “What’s the crime we were investigating yesterday? Unlawful discharge? Haha,” Valencia texted to Matthew Stewart, who replied, “Being a douche lol.” Valencia, who has killed before, used the “gun battle” they had just been in to bond with Stewart, texting that the shooting made them “Brothas for life now dogg.”
Judge permanently blocks standards for sheriffs
A Thurston County judge ruled that parts of the new sheriff standards law were unconstitutional, making permanent a temporary injunction issued back in April. SB 5974, signed into law this year, permits the state to remove sheriffs and police chiefs who fail to meet professional standards. The law sets basic requirements for elected sheriffs that match those of ordinary sworn police officers and prohibits anyone from holding office who has a history of actions that would get state certification as a peace officer revoked.” Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank has been sweating this law since it was proposed because he’s facing possible decertification for bigoted posts he made while employed by Seattle police and since he became sheriff. Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown intends to appeal the law. Pierce County voters will also decide next month whether the sheriff remains an elected position.
One-year Chief Shon Barnes gets a new gig
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes wasted no time finding a new job. Barnes’ new employer MissionRT “advises law-enforcement agencies on leadership, technology, and organizational change.” MissionRT sells surveillance tech to federal, state and local police departments. The company’s partners include ZeroEyes, an AI software for school shootings that sent a school into lockdown over a clarinet. There’s also CAD system manufacturer Mark43 and Veritone, an AI recognition system that enables departments to circumvent bans on facial recognition, as well as Verkada, an ALPR vendor similar to Axon and Flock. Barnes isn’t the only former Seattle police chief to move into the police tech sector. After former Seattle Police chief Carmen Best resigned, she became a member of Axon’s “AI ethics board,” most of whom quit in opposition to the company’s proposed taser-equipped drones, Best was one of only three who did not.
Area cops surveil and raid Asian massage businesses
As part of a wider regional crackdown, cops in Everett, Federal Way, and Marysville are raiding and surveilling Asian massage businesses. Thirteen of the 21 massage businesses that were shut down had no criminal cases—they were shuttered for licensing reasons. Carried out under the pretext of investigating “sex trafficking,” these high-profile police raids of Asian massage businesses actually put workers at greater risk of labor exploitation, misdemeanor charges, immigration enforcement, and trafficking, according to the Massage Parlor Organizing Project. Apparently, a national nonprofit called The Network gave information to the Marysville police ahead of these raids. Founded by a former CIA agent and some military intelligence officers, The Network acts as a well-funded private intelligence service that targets massage businesses across the country using spycraft, like hidden cameras and microphones.
To support MPOP’s SafetyNotStigma anti-carceral worker protections campaign, sign their letter at tinyurl.com/SafetyNotStigma.
‘Burning building’ turns out to be just a burning couch
Last month, local police stenographers breathlessly published a story about Seattle police officers “running into a burning building” on Capitol Hill. SPD released a video edited so that we never see the fire itself—just a moderately smoky building. According to records DivestSPD obtained, the fire was contained to a couch and the immediate area around it. It wasn’t the five-alarm blaze we were expecting based on the hype from the Seattle police. The investigator estimated that the small fire, caused by either a lit cigarette or a heater, did less than $25,000 in damage. Nevertheless, the officers have already received commendations, and the department plans to honor them for heroism at the next award ceremony.
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