Jay S. Tabb Jr., the newly appointed special agent in charge of the Seattle office of the FBI, has a couple of urgent messages for the people of Washington: First, he says the bureau can’t do its job without the public.
“We can’t keep the American people safe without their help,” he said at a media meet-and-greet at the bureau’s downtown offices Tuesday. “Let me emphasize how much the FBI values our ties to this community.”
The other message?
“As a shameless plug, the FBI is currently hiring,” Tabb said.
The bureau is “especially interested in drawing from the vibrant and diverse communities here in Washington,” he said.
It was an odd — and humorous — moment at a meeting in which Tabb emphasized that, while the bureau’s main mission continues to be counterterrorism and protecting national security, he was surprised at the number and diversity of investigations handled by the Seattle office.
They include cybercrime, child exploitation, child pornography and battling drug cartels, which routinely move drugs and cash along the Interstate 5 corridor from Mexico to Canada and back.
Tabb also addressed the likelihood of Seattle as a terrorist target — we are no more nor less vulnerable than anywhere else, he said — and said he has begun a series of face-to-face meetings with leaders of Seattle immigrant communities to ensure there’s an open dialogue.
Tabb declined to speculate on what, if any, operational changes might occur within the FBI with the advent of a Trump administration, which has promised to watch Muslims as a potential terrorist threat and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. So far, he said, nothing is different.
Tabb will be the fifth special agent in charge to oversee the Seattle office’s 15-year investigation into the 2001 shooting death of Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Wales in his Queen Anne home. Tabb and the supervisory agent in charge of the investigation, Russ Fox, both said Monday that the investigation was active and ongoing.
“I won’t give you an opinion on the chances of solving it,” Tabb said, adding that the probe “is in full bloom right now.”
“Don’t let the span of time fool you,” he said. “We are all-ahead-full on the investigation. But in terms of whether or not we’ll be able to solve that murder, we’ll keep the case open until we solve it.”
Tabb, 49, who describes himself as an avid outdoorsman with family in the Seattle area, comes from the operational side of the agency, although he spent the past two years at the FBI in Virginia as the deputy assistant director of the counterterrorism division.
He joined the bureau in 1997 after nearly seven and a half years in the Marine Corps, where he achieved the rank of captain and described himself as a “former infantry officer with combat experience.” He served in the first Gulf War.
From 2004 to 2009, Tabb was a member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, and according to his biography “participated in numerous domestic and worldwide operations” and was twice critically injured during operations.
He was awarded the FBI’s Medal of Valor and two FBI stars for his actions.
