SEATTLE — Seattle police Chief Adrian Diaz on Tuesday acknowledged his department caused community “mistrust” and “trauma” with the revelation that officers kept a mock tombstone of a young Black man killed by police in an East Precinct break room, along with a Trump campaign flag and other troubling keepsakes.
Diaz appeared online before the city’s Community Police Commission, whose members had asked the chief to explain the items, which were seen on body-camera video turned over in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the city’s graffiti laws. The video was taken Jan. 1, 2021, and was first published by The Seattle Times.
“I acknowledge the impacts that we created after George Floyd’s murder,” said Diaz, referring to the killing of a suspect by police in Minneapolis, captured on video, that sparked Black Lives Matter and police-reform protests nationwide. In Seattle, the department responded to the protests with tear gas, blast balls and batons.
Diaz implied the Trump campaign flag and mock tombstone were an inappropriate reaction by officers to the stress of the times, but acknowledged their negative impact on the community.
“These images bring back that trauma. It created deep mistrust. But our department is committed to making it right, and I’m committed to making it right,” Diaz said.
The chief could not say when the flag and tombstone were first displayed, how long they had been there, who was responsible or whether any supervisors were aware of them, deferring to an ongoing Office of Police Accountability investigation that was launched after news of the display went public.
The mock tombstone bore the name “Damarius Butts,” his age — 19 — and the date he was killed by officers: April 20, 2017, following an armed robbery at a downtown convenience store.
Butts, who was armed with a revolver, was chased onto the loading dock of the downtown Federal Building, where he exchanged gunfire with pursuing officers. One officer was shot in the chest and seriously injured. Two others suffered minor gunshot-related injuries. Butts was shot 11 times and bled to death in a rear office where he had holed up.
An inquest jury determined the shooting was justified.
The revelation that police displayed a mock tombstone marking Butts’ death in an East Precinct bike and break room prompted outside attorneys to demand the department apologize to the family.
Diaz did not offer an apology to the Butts family during his Tuesday appearance.
Stephanie Anne Butts, the mother of Damarius Butts, also appeared via video at the CPC meeting to express her disgust that officers would remove a tombstone meant to memorialize her loss and make it a trophy.
“The day I lost my son was the worst day of my life,” Butts told the commissioners.
“It was very hurtful to know that SPD joked about killing my son,” she said. “I can’t believe they would be so callous that they warmed up food in a microwave below my son’s fake tombstone and didn’t see anything wrong with that.”
Butts said she had taken comfort from BLM memorials to those killed by police. So the theft of a tombstone from such a memorial, for display among those who killed her son, caused her to be “hurt and upset.”
“I was shocked at the lack of compassion and humanity displayed by the officers,” she said. “I do not understand it at all. I want to know why this happened.”
Joel Merkel, a commission co-chair and an assistant Washington attorney general, noted the video showing the Trump flag and other Make American Great Again paraphernalia was taken five days before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. More Seattle police officers — a total of six — attended that event than any other department in the country, according to the Office of Police Accountability.
At the time, the inquest proceedings into Butts’ death were ongoing.
“All of these items, individually and collectively, we believe are hostile to our community and to other officers who reject this kind of display,” Merkel said. “This display was allowed at the time, and these images have caused harm.”
“Damarius Butts was entitled to dignity,” Merkel said. “His family was entitled to dignity. It is difficult to capture how insulting and degrading that display was.”
CPC Co-Chair Rev. Harriett Walden, a longtime community activist and founder of Mothers for Police Accountability, said she was “absolutely furious” when she learned of the display with the Trump flag, “which is a sign of White supremacy.”
She urged Diaz to reach out to Black officers in the department who may have been offended by the display but were reluctant to complain.
The chief promised that his administration is working to change the culture in the department, and pointed to his “Before the Badge” community policing training program, aimed at helping SPD applicants understand the social and cultural issues in the community before they become officers.
At the same time, the chief noted the exodus from SPD — more than 575 officers in the past three years — hopefully weeded out some of the officers who were unwilling to change.
“Our personnel since that time [the video was taken] has changed,” Diaz said. “We are changing. … We still have a long road ahead. I believe that some of the work that we’re doing is really creating a foundation for a robust level of change.”
Diaz said OPA complaints are down and that most of the complaints being made come from within the department. Likewise, the chief said other indicators — particularly the use of force by officers — is also down significantly. The shooting Tuesday by police was the first in more than a year, he said.
Diaz said he ordered his bureau commanders to remove any other questionable displays but that none were found. “We did not find similar pockets of problematic materials,” he said. “We will remain vigilant. I think we’re getting some small wins, but we still have a long way to go.”
SPD Chief of Operations Brian Maxey told the commission that both police and city policies are currently inadequate to address the broad issues of professionalism and integrity presented by the East Precinct display.
“So we will just take the lead for the city at making it clear what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable,” he said.
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