SEATTLE — A 26-year-old man from Sedro Woolley was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release after an attempted arson at Queer/Bar, a nightclub in Capitol Hill.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Kalvinn Garcia pleaded guilty to setting fire to a dumpster in the ally behind Queer/Bar on Feb. 24, 2020. He was arrested minutes after the arson attempt.
According to the facts of his guilty plea, Garcia said to law enforcement, “I think it’s wrong that we have a bunch of queers in our society.” He also told officers that he targeted the bar because the sign that said "queer" angered him. A few weeks after his attempt, Garcia said to a stranger that he intended for the fire to trap and hurt the occupants of the nightclub and has admitted that he wanted to harm them because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The defendant committed an act of violence targeting innocent victims inside Queer/Bar, a known safe space for the LGBTQI+ community,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement released by the Department of Justice. “Bias-motivated violence runs contrary to our values and violates our federal civil rights laws. This sentence should send the message that every person in our nation deserves equal protection under the law regardless of who they love or how they identify and that those carrying out similar acts of violence against the LGBTQI+ community will be brought to justice.”
The case was investigated by the FBI Seattle Field Office and the Seattle Police Department.
To report and learn more about hate crime prevention, visit the Department of Justice website.
