Protester insists he didn’t bash Seattle mayor

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, July 8, 2001

By Elizabeth Murtaugh

Associated Press

SEATTLE – Omari Tahir-Garrett, the black protester accused of whacking Mayor Paul Schell in the face with a megaphone at a weekend neighborhood celebration, insists he didn’t do it.

The mayor sees it differently.

“I remember Omari coming toward me, and he did have the bullhorn in his hand. Then I turned to talk to a police officer. The next thing I know I was on the ground. I felt like I got hit by a truck,” Schell said this morning in an interview with KIRO radio.

Garrett, whose birth name is James C. Garrett, was arrested for investigation of felony assault after police officers wrestled him down at the scene of Saturday’s attack.

He was scheduled for an initial court appearance this afternoon.

In jailhouse interviews with Seattle newspapers and television stations Sunday, Garrett said someone else hit the mayor and that he was arrested only because he is black. He said he had given the megaphone to another person shortly before speaking with Schell.

“No, I didn’t hit the mayor,” Garrett said. “I don’t have no need to hit the mayor.”

Garrett is well known as a longtime activist in the black community. He also is a fringe mayoral candidate running against Schell in this fall’s campaign.

Saturday’s “Unity on Union” festival was held to recognize efforts to revitalize Seattle’s Central District. It had been planned for months and took place near the spot where Aaron Roberts, a black motorist, was shot and killed by a white officer May 31.

Witnesses said Garrett yelled through the megaphone about police brutality as Schell gave a speech at the event. At some point after the speech, Garrett approached the mayor and struck him, police said.

Schell, who is white, sustained broken bones around his right eye and a nasty shiner. He walked out of the hospital Sunday morning wearing sunglasses over his badly bruised eye.

The arrest is not Garrett’s first run-in with the law. In 1988, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail after grabbing a gun from a University of Washington police sergeant and pointing it at the officer’s head. The incident happened during a demonstration related to the university’s refusal to rehire a popular black lecturer.

Garrett has focused much of his activism on pressing the city to turn an abandoned school in the Central District into a black heritage museum. Activists occupied the school intermittently for eight years.

Schell reported to work earlier than usual at 6:30 a.m. today.

After taking media calls, he started preparing for staff meetings, a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new addition to the Washington State Trade and Convention Center, campaign appearances and a trip to watch baseball’s All-Star workout at Safeco Field, spokesman Dick Lilly said.

Schell said the attack will not deter him from going out into the community and working with people to improve life in the city.

“It’s clear we can’t afford to slip at all here,” he said. “There are real issues in the Central Area, in the African-American community that need to be addressed,” ranging from racial profiling to economic opportunity.

“We need to redouble our efforts and be very careful that we don’t let this escalate into something it’s not,” Schell added.

There are no plans to beef up security for Schell’s public appearances, but the mayor said Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske is reviewing the matter.

In Saturday’s attack, Schell hit the ground near candle drippings and a chalk body outline protesters left in memory of Roberts.

According to police accounts, Roberts, 37, a convicted felon wanted on an arrest warrant, was stopped for erratic driving, grabbed the arm of a police officer reaching for his identification and tried to drive with the officer hanging from the car door when the officer’s partner jumped in the car and shot him.

Protesters have called the shooting racially motivated. Police have said it was justified, because they are trained to use deadly force when their lives or their partners’ lives are in danger.

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