SEATTLE — Footage obtained exclusively by KIRO 7 shows ICE arresting a man near Seattle Center Monday morning while the cleanup and investigation into Sunday night’s mass shooting was happening only feet away.
KIRO 7 confirmed the man is not under investigation for any part in the shooting, despite the time and location of his arrest. According to U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal, he is accused of overstaying his visa.
According to witnesses, the man was trying to drive a white van into Seattle Center, and vendors were packing up their stalls from the Bite of Seattle food festival when he was pulled over by a marked ICE car.
The footage shows the man being put in cuffs by multiple officers before being loaded into an unmarked car.
A KIRO 7 crew headed to a news conference about food insecurity at the nonprofit Food Lifelines to ask Mayor Katie Wilson about the case. The mayor canceled her appearance.
Representative Jayapal was at the news conference and told KIRO 7 her office is looking into the arrest.
“We reached out to the ICE liaison immediately because we heard about it on Monday. We got a response immediately,” she said. “That was apparently a targeted operation around one individual that was a visa overstay from 2022. I find it odd that they are targeting visa overstays because those are not the worst of the worst, obviously.”
Jayapal said she does not yet know the man’s name, why he was in the area or whether he had any connection to Seattle Center or the food festival.
She said his arrest had nothing to do with the shooting. The situation follows months of pushback over immigration enforcement on city property, including Seattle Center.
“I wondered about that too, because we do have indications of state law violations around not wearing masks, though we do have a ban in place,” Jayapal said. “But it does not feel like ICE is always complying.”
A spokesperson for Seattle Center told KIRO 7 she was aware of the arrest, but because it happened in the street, it was not on the property. She referred us to the Seattle Police Department.
A Seattle police spokesperson said officers got reports of immigration enforcement in the area but were unable to confirm it.
Jayapal was critical of the timing and location of the arrest.
“It does seem incredibly insensitive and cruel to come by and conduct ICE enforcement action right after we had a shooting where three people died, four people were injured, and hundreds of thousands of people were traumatized,” she said.
KIRO 7 reached out to ICE about the case but has not heard back.
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