An attorney for off-duty officer Garth Haynes, who is facing a fourth-degree assault charge after a fight outside a Ballard bar in December that was caught on a police car dashboard cam, says the attack was racially motivated.
Seattle police officer Garth Haynes after a fight outside a Ballard bar in December.
Kiro7 followed up on a tip from a police source that this may have been a hate crime. In the video, attorney Oscar Desper says that one of the men arrested that night proves Haynes was attacked because he is African American. Sitting in the backseat of the police car the man who was arrested said, “Looked like he might be a frickin’ spook, just pretending to be a cop.”
“It’s a derogatory term that refers to African Americans, and the fact that they’re so dark that you cannot see them in the dark. So it’s generally meant as a racial term,” Desper told Kiro7. “I think it clearly shows that he’s the actual victim of a crime.”
Until now, Haynes has been viewed as the perpetrator, not the victim. Police cam video released shortly after the attack shows what appears to be Haynes stomping on the head of a hand-cuffed suspect.
You can read more from Kiro7 here as well as see the 38 minutes of new video, hear the 911 call by Haynes and watch the uncut interview with Haynes’ attorney.
