SEATTLE — Washington State Patrol (WSP) referred charges to the King County Prosecutor's Office against five people who participated in a protest that blocked Interstate 5 for hours on Jan. 6.
Referred charges against the three males and two females include second-degree criminal trespass, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and obstruction. Two other people have been identified and remain under investigation.
The King County Prosecutor's Office will make the final determination if charges will be filed.
“As I noted soon after the freeway closure incident, this is not about the rights of free speech or assembly. There can be no doubt that the Washington State Patrol respects and protects those rights. This is about holding people accountable for unlawful and dangerous acts that put the traveling public, our first responders, and yes, the protestors themselves, in danger,” State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste said in a prepared statement.
“Stepping foot on a freeway to highlight your own individual cause is a self-centered act that is dangerous, foolhardy, disruptive, and most assuredly illegal. We have asked for public assistance in identifying suspected law breakers during otherwise legal protests before and we do so when we see behavior that is too dangerous to be tolerated," the statement said in part.
WSP said it will "exhaust all possible investigatory efforts to catch those responsible and deter others from engaging in similarly dangerous behavior in the future.”
Shortly after 1 p.m. on Jan. 6, protesters blocked all northbound lanes of I-5 in downtown Seattle by stopping 12 vehicles, according to state patrol. The protesters got onto the freeway by cutting through a fence. Among the protesters were a group of eight people who bound themselves together in a technique known as a "sleeping dragon."
According to state patrol, troopers were gathering the "equipment and personnel resources necessary to safely and effectively process a large crowd" when "threatening weather" dispersed it before arrests could be made, a press release states.
The 12 vehicles used to block the freeway were abandoned. Per protocol, state patrol had to search them with bomb-sniffing dogs before towing them.
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