SEATTLE — Two of the six Seattle police officers who attended former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal" rally in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 have been fired.
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz announced he terminated the two officers in a statement Friday and released their official disciplinary action reports.
The officers violated three department policies on Jan. 6, including their duty to "adhere to laws, city policy and department policy," according to the reports signed by Diaz.
“Based on the evidence presented to me and the statement of the officers themselves, I have terminated their employment with the Seattle Police Department, effective immediately,” Diaz said in a statement.
Evidence gathered by the FBI and an investigation by the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) revealed that the two officers had trespassed onto the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 and stood by while others around them breached the Capitol Building and assaulted officers, according to their disciplinary reports.
The chief’s determination in the disciplinary action reports reads, in part, “Yet on the afternoon of January 6, you violated the law and stood in the midst of an attempted insurrection. Your unlawful presence provided the appearance that you, a member of the Seattle Police Department, supported an unlawful insurrection and greatly undermined the public trust in you and all law enforcement officers.”
According to Diaz’s statement, the officers’ actions on Jan. 6 were first reported by fellow Seattle police officers. Documents show the two denied that they knew they were trespassing despite evidence showing they had crossed outdoor barriers and stood directly next to the Capitol Building as the insurrection took place. Diaz called it “absurd” to think they were ignorant of their surroundings.
Five officers with the Capitol Police Department who were present at the insurrection have died, four of whom died by suicide. Roughly 140 officers were assaulted, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
“The participation of these two officers in that crowd is a stain on our department, and on the men and women who work every day to protect our community, serve those in need, and do so with compassion and dignity,” Diaz said in his statement.
Their termination comes about a month after the OPA released its findings into their actions, saying that the two officers should be fired.
Three of the other officers with Seattle Police that were in the area of the Jan. 6 riot did not violate policy or do anything illegal, according to the OPA, which said it could not establish whether or not the sixth officer violated the department’s policy.