SEATTLE (AP) - Federal prosecutors are charging a 19-year-old man with arson in connection with a fire set at the Seattle Police Department East Precinct on Monday night.
Desmond David-Pitts was arrested and booked Tuesday before being transferred into federal custody, The Seattle Times reported.
In a complaint filed Thursday, federal prosecutors say surveillance-camera footage shows David-Pitts throwing trash bags into a sally-port area at the precinct and using a lighter to set them ablaze.
According to a complaint filed Thursday, David-Pitts initially denied starting the fire but later admitted to it during an interview.
“During the interview, David-Pitts said he and others with whom he is close have had bad experiences with police,” wrote Michael Collier, special agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “He stated that as the protest went on, ‘My stupid ass got angry. So that’s exactly why I was acting the way I did. I’m accountable.’”
David-Pitts appeared in U.S. District Court Thursday. J. Talitha Hazelton, an attorney representing David-Pitts, declined to comment on the charges Thursday and said she has not yet been able to see David-Pitts in person.
The fire at the precinct Monday night came amid several months of protests against police violence and racial injustice in Seattle. The event was organized to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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