Schell Shocked In Seattle

A man protesting a police shooting of a black man hit Mayor Paul Schell in the face with a megaphone during a community celebration Saturday, police said. The mayor was hospitalized with broken bones around his eye.

Two police officers wrestled the man to the ground and he was arrested for investigation of felony assault, Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said.

He identified the man as James C. Garrett, 55, who also goes by the name Omari Tahir-Garrett. He has pressed to establish an African-American Heritage Museum in Seattle and has interrupted at least one Schell news conference to try to draw attention to his cause.

Kerlikowske said Garrett struck the mayor as he was standing offstage with several other people at an event celebrating revitalization efforts in Seattle's Central District. Schell was in stable condition at Harborview Medical Center late Saturday.

Doctors ruled out a concussion and said they would wait for the swelling to dissipate before determining whether surgery would be necessary.

The mayor is "going to have an enormous shiner," his spokesman Dick Lilly said.

Kerlikowske rode in the ambulance with Schell and said the mayor was in good spirits.

"He's in some pain," Kerlikowske said. "I think he's proving he can take a punch, literally...The mayor's a very tough guy."

People at the celebration voiced strong support for the mayor after the attack, shouting down the protesters, Kerlikowske said.

Black leaders held a news conference to denounce the assault and offered prayers for Schell's recovery.

"We are also here today to say unequivocally, in no uncertain terms, we deplore ... this senseless and unthinkable attack on the mayor," said the Rev. Leslie Braxton, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church.

Speaking for about 15 community leaders at the news conference, Reggie Witherspoon of Mount Cavalry Church said he does not feel the attack will thwart efforts to improve relations between the city, police and the black community.

"We can work this thing out," Witherspoon said.

Several protests have been held in the Central District following a white officer's fatal shooting of Aaron Roberts, a black man, on May 31.

Protester Dale Hodges said he and Garrett had been holding a sign that read "Stop Police Terrorism" seconds before the attack.

"The mayor's shouting, trying to placate him, as if synchronizing the stop lights are going to make everything OK in the Central District," Hodges said. "It was very insulting to him, an ocean of white faces standing on this place where the guy had been murdered, and he just snapped."

Hodges said the mayor had called to Garrett, saying something to the effect that "if we could just get a dialogue going, we could work out our differences."

An inquest jury will be seated this month to decide whether the two officers acted appropriately during the traffic stop that resulted in Roberts' death. The FBI also is reviewing the shooting.

According to police acounts, Roberts was stopped for erratic driving, then grabbed the arm of a police officer and tried to drive with the officer hanging from the car door.

Roberts, 37, was a convicted felon being sought on an arrest warrant.

By Elizabeth Murtaugh
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