In a video obtained by KIRO 7, two Seattle police officers are caught on camera knocking an arson suspect to the ground at a bus stop.
On May 31, DeeAnthony Marcell recorded the violent encounter while on the bus. It happened at the stop at Rainier Ave South and South Andover Street.
“They were already moving to beat him before I even got what I caught. And all I could do was record,” Marcell said.
Marcell’s video shows two Seattle police officers hitting the suspect several times with a baton and then kneeling on his back.
“Resisting arrest is one thing, but trying to protect yourself is another. Of course, if I got hit with a bat, there’s no way I could say, OK, OK, OK! When you hit me in the head with a bat,” Marcell described.
An investigation is now underway into the use of force against the two officers.
KIRO 7 understands this is not the first time one of the officers has been accused of excessive force.
‘The Stranger’ identified Sergeant Nathan Patterson as one of the officers in the video caught beating a protester in 2020.
Patterson was seen repeatedly punching a protester, who investigators say resisted and threatened police with a bottle of water.
An Office of Police Accountability investigation later found that Patterson used excessive force.
“It’s like seeing this four years later, it’s like we’re back here again. And this time though it’s not a black person, race doesn’t really matter to me, it was the fact that something unfair happened to someone, that wasn’t fair, that wasn’t right, there were two people, you could have done that arrested him in many other ways,” Marcell said.
Interim SPD chief Sue Rahr and the OPA have both said they are investigating the use of force at the Rainer Vally bus stop on May 31.
