Seattle fire chief apologizes for off-duty firefighters accused of beating homeless men
Click here if video above fails to play
Click here for raw video of Chief Dean’s statement
More fire news at FireCritic.com
Previous coverage of this story
Seattle’s fire chief has publicly apologized for an attack in Pioneer Square on Saturday night.
Two of his off duty firefighters are accused of beating a homeless man in Occidental Park.
Police believe it started when Mia Jarvinen, a finance manager at Amazon, kicked a plate of food in front of one of the homeless men who was sleeping on the firefighters memorial.
Fire Chief Gregory Dean says both fire fighters will be put on leave.
“We spend our whole careers taking care of people … and now we have an incident here… where we are not taking care of people. And if these accusations are true we need to hold ourselves accountable,” he said.
Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times:
According to a police report released Monday, Jarvinen and two off-duty firefighters, Scott Bullene and Robert Howell, who are on disability leave from the department, initially claimed to have been the victims of an unprovoked attack. They told police they were walking through Occidental Park when a black male in a hooded sweatshirt attacked them for no reason, the report said.
Jarvinen is Bullene’s girlfriend, according to court documents.
However, police noted that further investigation revealed that Jarvinen, Bullene and Howell initiated the attack, according to the report. Police said the three encountered the homeless man while he was sleeping on the Seattle Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Occidental Park.
“I apologize for the violence that occurred in Pioneer Square this weekend. The actions these two firefighters are accused of is not representative of the conduct we expect of Seattle firefighters,” said Chief Gregory Dean. “I expect Seattle firefighters to treat every person in our community with respect.”
Witnesses said the group took off, but then stopped and got into another fight with another man.
Police say in the second attack, Bullene is accused of taking a homeless man’s walking staff and beating him with it. The victim told police Bullene hit him on the head and his arm. That is when he stabbed Bullene with a folding knife.
