A father is calling for justice after he and his young daughter were pepper-sprayed in a Seattle park.
Brett Cameron was at Green Lake Park Wednesday after taking his 2-year-old daughter Quinn to the wading pool. He's a firefighter and was off-duty at the time.
That’s when he said he noticed David Zaitzeff.
“He was taking photos of a young girl in her bathing suit, sunbathing,” Cameron said.
He approached Zaitzeff and asked if he had her permission. Zaiteff said he likely did not, according to the police report. The pair separated.
Later in the day, Cameron noticed Zaitzeff taking more photographs of women, and confronted him. That’s when he said Zaitzeff turned the camera on him, as he held Quinn on his hip.
“I said don’t take any more, or I’m going to take the camera,” said Cameron. “At that point, he had something around his wrist… he raised it up and sprayed my daughter right in the face, sprayed me right in the face.”
“Quinn, her face [was] red, she [couldn’t] breathe,” said Cameron. “She’s crying so hard. She’s inconsolable.”
He said in the chaos Quinn slipped from his arms and started running blindly. She ran into a tree and has bruising on her head and cuts on her legs.
“She was pretty upset,” said Quinn's mother, Kelcee Azure. “It was hard. It was hard.”
Azure said she’s noticed a change in her daughter.
“Doesn’t sleep at night, cries a lot, needs me, needs Brett way more than normal,” she said.
Zaitzeff was charged with two counts of misdemeanor assault. He pled not guilty and was released on his own recognizance, though the judge imposed a no-contact order.
Attempts to reach Zaitzeff for comment were unsuccessful.
It’s not his first run-in with police. In the police report, an officer noted that Zaitzeff was known to him from frequent disturbance calls at the park and that a witness told him he “frequently walked around the lake in scantily-clad clothing usually with a sign saying ‘free hugs.’”
The officer noted he knew Zaitzeff to carry a fixed blade knife around his neck.
An online blog attributed to Zaitzeff’s name displays multiple photos of women sunbathing. Similar photos are posted on a Twitter account under Zaitzeff's name.
“He’s doing it for bad reasons,” said Cameron. “I wouldn’t want him taking pictures of my daughter. I don’t think he should be taking pictures of other people’s daughters for impure reasons.”
Quinn is now recovering well, but he parents are reminded of the incident by the pepper spray stain on her unicorn ballcap and swimsuit.
They said they want the issue handled, so families can enjoy the park safely.
“Enough is enough,” said Azure.
“This kind of stuff can’t happen,” said Cameron.
Zaitzeff is scheduled back in court in September.
