Man sentenced to 4 years for hate crime at Seattle LGBTQ+ nightclub

A 26-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison for starting a fire outside an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Seattle that has been connected to a hate crime.

Kalvinn Garcia plead guilty to setting a dumpster on fire in the alley behind Capitol Hill club, Queer/Bar. He admitted to police that he intentionally set the fire because “it angered him to see a sign that said ‘queer,'” and that his intention was to “trap and hurt the people inside.”

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Garcia was arrested only minutes after setting the fire.

“Bias-motivated violence runs contrary to our values and violates our federal civil rights laws,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a news release. “This sentence should send the message that every person in our nation deserves equal protection under the law regardless of who they love or how they identify and that those carrying out similar acts of violence against the LGBTQI+ community will be brought to justice.”

The FBI and Seattle Police were involved in investigating the crime.

At the sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour further noted that the “potential for panic and trampling and death is incredible.”

“Hate is hate, whether it is impacted by mental health or not,” he added.