Investigation launched into SPD officer who claimed KIRO 7 news crew searched suspect's car

SEATTLE, Wash. — The city of Seattle’s Office of Professional Accountability is launching an investigation into a Seattle police officer after she accused a KIRO 7 news crew of going through a suspect’s car after a high-speed pursuit.

It is the second investigation into the officer, Sgt. Lora Alcantara, for the same chase, in which she’s heard using a racial slur to describe the suspect.

In dash cam video from the police chase in February of 2013, you can hear Alcantara shouting and swearing as she chases a suspect near the Space Needle and around South Lake Union.

“Where did this f—ing car go?” she yells at one point.

“The f—ing Negro, as I was crossing, the guy went that way through the alley,” she says at another point.

The use of the derogatory term led to a five-day suspension.

But now, Alcantara is being investigated for what she says happened in an encounter with the news crew, although the dash cam video does not show it.

Photographer Roland Bailie is seen behind the news van in the first encounter, which is blocking the dash cam’s view of the suspect’s white sedan.

You can hear reporter Essex Porter off-camera.

“We saw it blow past us on 5th North,” Essex says to the officer. “What are you guys chasing?”

Alcantara takes off again but returns about two minutes later.

As her car drives up, Essex is seen peering through the passenger window of the car. Then he runs to catch up with the news van.

Alcantara gets out of her vehicle and heads to the passenger side. Less than a minute later, there is some kind of movement inside the vehicle.

Then the video shows Alcantara walking to the driver’s side, open up the door, and appear to examine something in the door. She leaves the door open and walks back to her patrol car.

“The news crew was here going through the car,” she says on the radio. On the other end, it sounds like someone asks, “The news crew?”

“Yes,” Alcantara says. “They opened up that door.”

The director of the Office of Professional Accountability, which investigates complaints about officers, spoke with Essex on Thursday, who said he and Roland never went through the vehicle.

The OPA released a statement: “In the last 24 hours, questions have been raised in the media concerning a 2013 incident in which a SPD officer told her supervisor that a news crew had opened the door to a suspect’s car and was “going through it.”

This statement was captured on the officer’s in-car video. In response to a news report today that the involved reporter denied opening the car door or going through it, OPA Director Pierce Murphy contacted the reporter directly.

The reporter told Murphy that neither he nor the videographer with him opened the car door or went inside it.

In light of this apparent discrepancy, Murphy has opened an OPA Intake to review the available evidence and determine whether or not further investigation is warranted.”

UPDATE, MARCH 18:

KIRO 7’s News Director spoke with Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole. KIRO 7 expressed outrage at the unfounded accusation that our journalists had done something inappropriate.

O’Toole said she cannot comment on an open OPA investigation, but assured KIRO 7 that the department has great respect for KIRO 7 and for Essex Porter.

Cox Media Group