Sheriff’s office asks public for help solving racial harassment incident

Published 10:00 am Wednesday, September 16, 2015

In the midst of public concern about a possibly racially-motivated incident that occurred last month, the sheriff’s office continues to ask that the public come forward with any information, while the victim says he would like the attention surrounding the incident to die down.

As previously reported in The Beachcomber, the police report indicates that an African-American man was walking home after work through downtown Vashon at about 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 23, when a vehicle with four occupants swerved in an alleged attempt to hit him in the 9700 block of Bank Road. It drove off, but returned a short time later, and one of the passengers reportedly swung a baseball bat at the victim. The victim returned to work, called 911 and waited outside for assistance. However, deputies were busy with another call, the report states, and the man tried to walk home, only to have the vehicle return with its lights off while he was still in the Thriftway parking lot. In the report, the victim said he heard the men yell a racial slur followed by two gunshots.

Since the Aug. 23 incident, several island residents have expressed concern about the incident, raising questions about media and law enforcement’s response to it, believing too little attention was being paid, and some have organized a community forum about racism on Vashon for this Sunday.

Late last week, Sgt. Stan Seo, a spokesman for the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO), said that the department is taking the report seriously, but has little information to go on. Seo repeated the department’s earlier request that people with knowledge of the event step forward.

“If you have direct knowledge of what occurred, contact the sheriff’s office. That is what is going to help us be successful,” he said.

Seo noted that the one detective assigned to Vashon, Debby Schmitz, has been trying to connect with the victim, but efforts had been hampered because of the long Labor Day weekend, job responsibilities that took her out of the office and the fact that the victim does not have a phone. Schmitz and the victim had exchanged voice mail messages, he said, but had not yet met in person.

“She is trying to connect with him to see if she can extrapolate more information to see if we can identify those involved,” he added.

When Schmitz was first given the case, Seo added, she generated a bulletin that went out to law enforcement, giving the description of the truck involved, but she had few details beyond that.

“It is a serious crime,” Seo added. “The problem is there is not a lot of information to go on.”

Seo also noted that concerned islanders have called the detective to learn more about the status of the investigation, but KCSO staff are not able to give out investigation information to the public.

In an interview at his home last week, the victim, who asked not to be named, confirmed the information in the police report and elaborated on it.

The vehicle involved, he said, was a small, beat up white pick up truck. There were two men in the cab and two in the open bed when they veered toward him as he was walking up Vashon Highway near the Vashon Island Baking Company. He leapt out of the way to avoid being hit, he said. The vehicle drove away and then returned, and the passenger swung a bat at him, but the truck was not close enough to hit him, he said. Not sure what they would do next, he said he returned to his job at Thriftway and called 911 to report the incident and request a ride home.

While waiting outside in the parking lot, he saw a deputy’s vehicle drive down the highway toward the four-way intersection, and he ran toward it to flag it down. It was then the white truck reappeared behind him with its lights off, he said, and the shots were reportedly fired.

With that, he said he ran toward the Village Green, and took a back way home. He called and reported the incident further the next morning, something he said he was hesitant to do from previous experience and because deputies did not respond the night before.

“The only reason I called the cops is my wife believes in the island,” he told The Beachcomber.

Since news of the incident has circulated, he has received both support and criticism, as people have questioned if the events really happened in a place as quiet as Vashon. He said he would not make up such a situation and does not want to be in the spotlight.

“We’re brand new here. Who wants the attention?” he said.

He and his family moved to the island three months ago from inner-city Baltimore and have extended family living on the island.

“I’m here for some serious peace and family time,” he said, sitting outside his home, gesturing to his young children, who played in the yard.

Some of the island’s deputies have been looking into the incident, he said, but he does not feel he needs any investigation updates.

“I don’t care until they are caught,” he said.

The men in the truck were likely drunk, he added, and he has not seen them since that night. He believes they live off-island, though he said he remembered two of them from the Strawberry Festival.

He added that he retained little information from the incident and doubts he will not have anything to add when he meets with the detective. And, he stressed, three weeks have past since the incident, and he would like to move on and have the conversation with the visiting reporter to be his last on the subject.

“I am ready for it to be through,” he said. “It was so fast, so rare and so gone.”

Anyone with information about the incident should call KCSO at 296-3311.