Queen Anne assault victim says he didn’t provoke protesters

A Queen Anne man wants everyone to know his side of the story: He did not confront protesters in his neighborhood Wednesday night.

The 47-year-old man, who wishes to remain nameless for fear of retaliation, called KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson to set the record straight.

“I did not confront this group,” the victim told Dori. “I did not tell them to be quiet. I did not tell them to get out of the neighborhood and that they didn’t belong there. I did not engage or speak with anyone until they confronted me.”

He said he would classify himself as curious when he woke up around 11:30 p.m. to megaphones and loud chanting.

“The protest wasn’t moving on and I was wondering ‘are they protesting someone specifically?,’ so I got some clothes on to find out what was going on.”

By the time he got out there, the crowd had started moving again. He described it as a Macy’s parade where it stops and then moves on to the next block.

He walked past the group to get ahead of them to take a couple pictures of the size.

“I probably was going to share it with my friends the next day,” he said. “There was a loud group in my neighborhood and that doesn’t happen every night.”

He said one of the people was keying in on him as he was walking toward the front of the group, pointing a flashlight at him, and asking him what he was doing. That increased as he turned back to make his way home.

He said people kept shouting at him, “Who are you? What are you doing? Don’t take pictures.”

He said what he thinks set up a confrontation is a person smaller than him (he’s 6’3″) slipped in front of him, he lost his balance, stepped on the person’s foot, and braced himself against this person. That’s when the shouting started.

“They’re like, ‘assault, assault.'”

He said he was trying to leave but the same person was cutting him off. People kept putting flashlights into his face, and at one point, tapping him on the bridge of his nose.

“I grabbed it and tossed it to the side,” he said. “That kind of set them off.”

He said another group came rushing over and a larger person put the flashlight in his face. He grabbed it and pushed it aside and that’s when the assault occurred.

“Someone slipped into my blind spot or came up behind me, I don’t really know, and they hit me in the back right part of my head. And then I fell down. I think I got the concussion when I hit the ground.”

He classifies the group as a mob that was trying to wake people up in a Queen Anne neighborhood on a Wednesday night.

After calls to 911, police told his girlfriend they couldn’t go into the area to help because cars were blocking the area. He arrived at the hospital where police met him.

He ended up with four staples in his head.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.