SPD arrests city employee over threatening emails to Councilmember Kshama Sawant

The Seattle Police Department has arrested a 42-year-old city employee suspected of sending threatening emails to Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

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The man SPD arrested works for the Seattle Fire Department, and was booked into the King County Correctional Facility on Friday under suspicion of cyberstalking, computer trespass, and identity theft, as part of an “ongoing investigation” into a series of increasingly threatening emails sent to Sawant between December and January.

The emails began on Dec. 17, 2020, with escalating language that culminated in a threat against Councilmember Sawant’s life on Jan. 18, 2021.

“The time is here, and you will not have a place after tomorrow council woman,” the Jan. 18 email read. “Announce your resignation now, or else.”

The messages originated from a Seattle Fire Department account, although SFD contacted Sawant on Dec. 31, telling her that the employee was “claiming he did not send the emails” himself, implying that the account was hacked.

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The SPD now believes that to be true, having arrested a separate SFD employee for allegedly breaking into the first employee’s account to send the emails to Sawant.

The suspect arrested Friday has been placed on paid administrative leave by SFD pending upcoming legal proceedings; the department is also conducting its own internal investigation.

“The Seattle Fire Department has adopted values (Compassion, Courage, Diversity, Integrity and Teamwork) that guide our actions, behaviors and speak to who we are as an organization,” SFD said in a written release. “There are no circumstances under which the Seattle Fire Department would condone an employee sending threatening emails to another person.”

This comes in the wake of recent allegations from Sawant that the SPD was intentionally slow-walking its investigation, based on the fact that she had received little more than a “short update” from the department on its progress since speaking to a detective in mid-January.

City officials and SPD said last week, though, that it’s not uncommon for detectives to withhold details on open investigations, and that Sawant was made aware of that practice when a detective spoke to her in January.

The SPD reiterated Friday that it “will fully investigate any threat made against any public official and will work with prosecutors to ensure they are held responsible.”

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