Watch Seattle Police Pepper Spray Teacher Jesse Hagopian on MLK Day

James Bible

"Seattle police department!" a police officer screams in this video, as she pepper-sprays several people.

Garfield High School teacher Jesse Hagopian will file a tort claim this afternoon against the City of Seattle and the Seattle Police Department, according to his lawyer, former Seattle NAACP President James Bible, over the way he was pepper sprayed during demonstrations on Martin Luther King Day this year.

Bible posted this video clip of the incident:

"Jesse Hagopian had finished giving a powerful speech about how black lives matter when he was sprayed with pepper spray by a Seattle Police Officer," Bible writes in a press release. "He was on the phone with his mother and [was making] plans to be at his two year old child’s birthday party when he was sprayed. It is notable that this irrational police action occurred while he was several feet onto a Seattle sidewalk."

"At one point after the big main march," Hagopian wrote on Facebook later that day, "a group of bike cops set up a line to keep us from marching. Some people walked through the line, but I didn’t... The milk has helped a lot and I’m beginning to feel better. Wish we had a better world.”

The SPD has declined to comment on the incident.