King County deputy in standoff charged with assault

UPDATE: The King County deputy involved in a 13-hour standoff with Seattle police was charged with three counts of third-degree assault.

Deputy Berdon Parsons is accused of using pepper spray on officers on May 30. He was eventually arrested after a SWAT team breached the doors to his Capitol Hill apartment.

The Associated Press reports the deputy, who was on leave at the time of the standoff, remains in jail in lieu of $15,000 bail.

Original story

Seattle police say a deputy involved in a standoff was taken safely into custody Wednesday afternoon.

The incident began as a domestic violence call at 1:30 a.m. on Belmont Avenue in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. When police arrived, the deputy refused to come out of his apartment. This led to a standoff lasting until Wednesday afternoon when officers knocked down doors and took the man into custody.

Seattle Police Detective Patrick Michaud said that there is still some investigating into the matter to be done. It is unclear if the suspect had any weapons in the apartment.

“As we serve the search warrant, we are going to get a better number of weapons and ammunition …. We had valid concern that the suspect did have firearms,” he said. “So we wanted to make sure that everybody – public, officers, and the suspect – were safe so it didn’t escalate the situation even further.”

The SWAT team surrounded the deputy’s apartment building and officers blocked off Belmont Avenue between East Howell Street and East Olive Street all day during negotiations. Police eventually moved through the apartment door-by-door, some of which were locked and had to be knocked down. The suspect was found in the bathroom. He suffered minor cuts to his hand. It is unclear if the injuries were self-inflicted or were sustained during the police response.

It took officers about two hours to enter the apartment and slowly find the suspect. Robots were used in the search.

“We slow things down as we move forward in these situations … it is an effective tactic that keeps the suspect safe, the officers safe, and the public safe,” Michaud said.

“This was a very successful outcome,” he said. “I understand how the public could see it as taking a very long time. But that time is what allows us to bring it to a peaceful conclusion with just some minor injuries with the suspect.”

Nobody else was in the apartment with the deputy. The suspect’s partner was able to leave the apartment before the standoff. He suffered “very minor” injuries, according to Michaud.

Michaud said that the situation was handled the same as similar incidents and that the suspect did not receive any special treatment due to his position as a deputy.

According to King County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Abbott, the deputy has been with the department for 2.5 years. The deputy was on paid administrative leave prior to the standoff, according to the sheriff’s office.

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