Seattle to pay $10M to settle 2020 protesters’ case

SEATTLE — Seattle has agreed to pay $10 million to 50 demonstrators who sued over the police department’s heavy-handed response to racial justice protests in 2020, in a settlement announced by attorneys from both sides Wednesday.

The protesters were among tens of thousands who rallied downtown and in the Capitol Hill neighborhood for weeks after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police — a period that saw Seattle’s police department abandon its East Precinct building and the establishment of the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,” a six-block zone taken over by protesters.

The police department used aggressive techniques to disperse the crowds, including flash-bang grenades, foam-tipped projectiles and blast balls that explode and emit pepper gas.

At some points during protests, people in the crowds caused damage, including burning police cars and trying to set a fire at the East Precint. But a federal judge ordered the department to stop using chemical and other weapons indiscriminately against peaceful demonstrators.

When police used them even after then-chief Carmen Best and then-mayor Jenny Durkan promised they would stop the use of tear gas, except in life-threatening situations, the City Council voted unanimously to bar officers from using them. That decision was blocked by a federal judge.

Lawsuit plaintiffs included Aubreanna Inda, who was hit in the chest by a blast ball that exploded, sending her into cardiac arrest. Volunteer medics and other protesters performed CPR and brought her to a hospital.

Others included a teen whose finger was partially blown off, a disabled veteran with a cane who was tear-gassed and tackled and dozens who suffered hearing loss, broken bones, concussions, severe bruises, PTSD or other injuries, the lawsuit said.