Businesses damaged, looted during protest on Capitol Hill

SEATTLE — A group of protesters did a massive amount of damage Wednesday night in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

About 150 people gathered at Cal Anderson Park at 9 p.m. and marched before things dissolved into mayhem around 11:30 p.m. Police say they roamed the Capitol Hill neighborhood, looting, shooting fireworks and setting fires.

Police said some from the group broke the windows of a business (Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop) on East Olive Way and Bellevue Avenue then started a fire inside.

The group then went to 11th Avenue, breaking more businesses’ windows along the way. People then broke into Rove Vintage near Pike Street, looted merchandise, dumped it in the street and then set it on fire.

Early Thursday morning, clothes from the store were seen hanging from a street light and the remains of fires were still in the street.

The group then went to Broadway and Madison, where people used pipes and baseball bats to smash windows at Whole Foods.

Police say they threw fireworks into the store and then began looting.

The group smashed up a Starbucks on Olive Way as well as two banks - KeyBank and Chase - near Swedish Hospital.

The businesses damaged include Starbucks, Whole Foods, Rove, Blu Dot Furniture Design, Plants Capitol Hill and Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop, at least.

The Uncle Ike’s location is new and not yet opened. Their surveillance cameras caught the moments people started causing damage, smashing windows with bolt cutters and other objects. You can see someone also lighting a firework and throwing it in the building, causing the storefront to catch on fire.

“You can tell they’re not scared of anything happening to them,” Ian Eisenberg, the owner of Uncle Ike’s, said. “It’s not that many people and the police could handle it if city council would let them.”

Eisenberg said the damage caused is in the tens of thousands, but he still plan to open on August 1.

“We’re not going to be deterred or scared by a bunch of bullies,” he said.

Police say the protesters then returned to Cal Anderson Park, then broke up and went home.

No one was arrested and no officers were hurt.

Another protest is expected on Saturday. Residents in the neighborhood told KIRO 7 they are on edge.

Cox Media Group