Auburn resident sentenced after threatening to kill Inslee, other political figures

An Auburn man was sentenced to one year in prison by the King County Superior Court after he pleaded guilty to charges involving threats he made to kill Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and other political figures.

Officers from the Seattle Police Department (SPD) arrested Rashidi Slaughter, 46, after he made multiple calls to the SPD’s dispatch, threatening the lives of multiple elected officials. According to court documents obtained by MyNorthwest, Slaughter made 19 phone calls starting May 3, 2023 to SPD dispatch.

More from SPD: Strong-arm-robbers ‘hit back-to-back-to-back’

“You tell the governor, senator, mayor of Washington and the president of the United States of America, I’m gonna blow their f****** face off with a shotgun n*****,” Slaughter said in one of the recorded phone calls to Seattle dispatch. “I’m gonna hang a child and beat that motherf***** like its motherf****** Cinco de Mayo day.”

“You tell Jay Inslee I’m gonna rape his wife, I’m gonna kill, cut his f****** head off,” Slaughter said in another call an hour later. “You tell Barack Obama I’m gonna shove a gauge up his motherf****** wife’s p**** and blow that motherf***** off.”

In subsequent phone calls, he made more vague threats about harming an unnamed woman in his life, and that if he gets a gun, he would go “on a rampage,” according to court documents.

Court documents also revealed Slaughter would give out his name and full address to police dispatch during these phone calls. His residence was at Hobson Place, a nonprofit housing program that serves Seattle’s homeless population. He also told dispatch that “someone or something is inside of him.” Slaughter holds multiple mental health diagnoses, according to court documents, including schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and antisocial personality disorder.

Slaughter has had nearly 80 custodial arrests on his record by the time SPD took him into custody.

“Slaughter is well known to SPD and has made numerous threats towards officers and dispatchers as well,” Detective Sergeant M. J. Harschfeld wrote in his determination of probable cause documents. It is believed that Slaughter has contacted the SPD more than 1,000 times.

Judge Johanna Bender sentenced Slaughter to 12 months in confinement at the King County Jail, with an additional five-year no-contact order for Slaughter with Inslee.

Slaughter’s second arrest

Slaughter also pleaded guilty to threatening to kill the employees of his housing complex with a metal pipe in November 2023. According to court documents, he attempted to swing a metal pipe at the employees of the building. The employees barricaded themselves into an office, but Slaughter still tried to break in by attempting to shatter the windows.

“I’m going to come in and kill all of you,” Slaughter told the employees, according to court documents.

His 12-month sentence is for both guilty verdicts, as the court decided his two current convictions will run concurrently.

More local crime: Lynnwood police arrest ‘criminal mastermind’ behind gift card scheme

Previous threats to local public officials

This is not Slaughter’s first time threatening a Washington public official. In April 2021, Slaughter was arrested after leaving a voicemail stating that he wanted to kill Jenny Durkan, the mayor of Seattle at the time.

“Ms. Jenny Durkan, this will be an easy game for you to play,” Slaughter said in a voicemail for Durkan, later obtained through court documents. “If you don’t let me put a civil rights, no contact order on anybody I want to, guess what? I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do it, but I’m going to kill you and your whole family, do you understand me?”

He was charged with harassment by the King County Superior Court, according to The Auburn Reporter, but the case was dismissed five months later after Slaughter pleaded guilty in mental health court.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.