Medics Sue Seattle Police Over Excessive Use of Force and Use of Blast Balls on May Day

Police aim less-than-lethal weapons at protesters on May Day. Alex Garland

Two medics, including one veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, are suing the Seattle Police Department alleging excessive force and suppression of their First Amendment rights on May Day.

"The weapons and tactics were designed to injure and terrorize citizens and dissuade them from engaging in political speech," the lawsuit, filed in federal court yesterday, claims. "Although for years May Day events have featured a large number of peaceful protestors and a small number of property damage incidents, the defendants planned, authorized, implemented, and/or ratified policies subjecting to violence everyone protesting and exercising their constitutional rights."

The suit names Assistant Chief Steve Wilske and Captain Chris Fowler, as well as unnamed individual officers who threw blast balls or fired rubber bullet-style weapons, as defendants.

Aaron Donny-Clark Courtesy of Aaron Donny-Clark

One of the medics is Aaron Donny-Clark, a 32-year-old Army veteran who served sixteen months in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He is a registered emergency medical technician (EMT).

Reached by phone, Donny-Clark said offering medical services at protests is "an important part of how I express myself now. Everyone should be able to express themselves and feel safe."

Donny-Clark moved to Seattle last year and this spring joined the Puget Sound Medic Collective, a volunteer medic group that requires its members to undergo first aid and CPR training. On May Day, he carried medical supplies in a backpack marked with a red cross.

Video posted to YouTube shows Donny-Clark running in the opposite direction of a police line on Olive Way when a blast ball explodes in front him, right next to a group of diners at an outdoor patio. Another explodes nearby seconds later, at the 3:25 mark:

Donny-Clark said the explosions caused bruising to his shins and ankles.

"No one should go to a protest and feel like they're being targeted by any sort munition," he said. "This was nonviolent."

Donny-Clark said when the two blast balls exploded close to his body he thought, "There's no way they could possibly be targeted [towards me]. But they kept hitting right near me and following me. In the military we call it walking mortars... they got closer and closer, and then a little bit past me."

He continued: "I'm not supposed to get blown up stateside—by police of all people. It's absurd." Donny-Clark wasn't diagnosed with PTSD after his military service, but explosions generally trigger a degree of trauma for him, he said, because they harken back to when bases where he was stationed were being rocketed. He said the experience on May Day was traumatizing.

The other plaintiff in the suit is Frankie Jurkowski, another member of the local medic collective. She testified at the City Council after May Day, saying, "I volunteer to go out and help people exercise their First Amendment rights... I'm really, really sick of being shut up for that... I was treating people, I was clearly marked as a medic, and I was targeted."

Jurkowski, right, shows off welts on her legs that she said were caused by police munitions. Alex Garland

The lawsuit seeks damages for Donny-Clark and Jurkowski, neither of whom were ever accused of any crime or arrested, as well as a permanent injunction prohibiting SPD from using excessive force against peaceful protesters. The SPD and City Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

In May, I asked the department how many blast balls they used on May Day, but they never responded. Chief Kathleen O'Toole has said she is proud of how officers performed during the demonstrations.