Rioters target Seattle police, local businesses late Saturday

A group of 25 to 30 people, most dressed in black and wearing bandannas or masks, wreaked mayhem Saturday night in Seattle on Capitol Hill and the Denny Triangle, painting anti-police slogans, throwing flares at patrol cars and trashing several businesses, police said.

Officers arrested three people on suspicion of rioting, pedestrian interference and obstruction.

The melee began about 9 p.m., as an officer was taking a prisoner to the West Precinct office at Eighth Avenue and Virginia Street. The officer noted a large group gathered nearby at Boren Avenue and Howell Street, the intersection where Seattle police Officer Ian Birk fatally shot John T. Williams, a First Nations woodcarver, on Aug. 30. The area was the scene of a September protest.

The shooting was ruled unjustified, but prosecutors recently said they would not file criminal charges. Mayor Mike McGinn, meanwhile, declared Sunday John T. Williams Day.

As the officer drove by the group, someone discharged a fire extinguisher at the police car, police said.

Members of the group put up plastic fencing and caution tape in the intersection, painted an anti-police profanity on the street and on a nearby building and placed a couple dozen large staples in the street, possibly intended to flatten tires, police said.

As police approached, the group moved away, gathering later at East Pine Street and East Boylston Avenue. Some carried signs encouraging violence against police and someone threw a large firework at a police car that bounced off and detonated, police said.

As the group moved to Broadway then north, individuals pushed trash cans and paper boxes into the street, police said.

People threw several lit flares at patrol cars, sprayed fire extinguishers at passing cars and tried to break windows at a bank on Broadway, police said, as well as damaged several businesses and at least one parked car.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published Feb. 27, 2011, was corrected Feb. 27, 2011. A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to John T. Williams as a Native American, when in fact he is a member of Canada's First Nations.