Feds arrest Tacoma woman for allegedly burning 5 police vehicles in Seattle protest
A Tacoma woman was arrested at her home Thursday for allegedly burning five police vehicles in downtown Seattle on May 30 during protests over the death of George Floyd.
Federal authorities in full SWAT gear took the 25-year-old woman into custody without incident, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
A neighbor near the home in the 8400 block of South G Street reported hearing explosions during the raid.
The woman was identified from photos and videos by her numerous and distinctive tattoos, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. The videos came from Seattle police, surveillance cameras, broadcast news video and social media posts.
“This defendant was captured by multiple cameras using an accelerant, lit like a blowtorch, to start fires in five vehicles — putting the public at risk and creating the very real possibility of a structure fire amidst the throng of people protesting downtown,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran.
A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle charges the woman, Margaret Aislinn Channon, with five counts of arson.
Investigators from the FBI, ATF and Seattle Police Department reviewed the protest videos which showed the suspect’s hand tattoos. The suspect in the videos has her face covered.
Authorities identified the suspect as Channon through social media accounts and posts, some of which involved a missing person report from 2019.
Officers executed a search warrant at Channon’s home and seized clothing and accessories that allegedly appeared in the videos, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Charging papers go into great detail on the suspect’s behavior on May 30, detailing how she set the vehicles on fire, her clothing, even her “unique eyebrows.”
According to charging papers, the burned vehicles include a Ford Transit Connect van, a Dodge Caravan, a Chevrolet Express van and two Ford Explorers.
Tacoma Police had officers on the scene but did not participate in the arrest, said spokeswoman Wendy Haddow.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 3:02 PM.
