Police under east end of West Seattle Br #maydaysea pic.twitter.com/x9Its76eCO
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) May 2, 2016
8:24 PM: Thanks for the tips – the May Day protest downtown has made its way toward SODO and police are reported to be taking action to keep protesters off the West Seattle Bridge. We headed toward the bridge to try to see what’s up and we are seeing Guardian One and media helicopters over 4th and Spokane, lots of police beneath it.
There may be some effects on access to the bridge – we are seeing police at intersections on lower Spokane beneath it. More to come.
8:29 PM: We’re in Beacon Hill at the east end of the bridge and turning around to head back westbound from Columbian. We have one texted report that access might be, or was, blocked from I-5. (update) We’re on the westbound bridge now and it looks like all the regular onramps are open now. Still a police presence under the bridge in the 4th/6th Avenue vicinity:
This appears to have been the tail end of what police described as a violent protest downtown. Here’s the latest SPD tweet, as the stragglers made it further south on 4th Avenue S:
Group now assailing shopping carts in @Costco parking lot. #MayDaySea
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) May 2, 2016
8:41 PM: SPD just tweeted that the seventh arrest of this protest was made in the Costco parking lot. Also, an update from WSDOT confirms the ramp to the bridge from southbound I-5 is open again. The protest had been unfolding downtown/Capitol Hill and vicinity so we hadn’t been covering it but suddenly texts and tweets started telling us about restricted bridge access as protesters approached SODO, and that’s why we jumped in.
8:48 PM: SPD tweets that the protesters were “contained” outside Costco and are dispersing in small groups.
10:03 PM: Final tally for the pm protest that ended in SODO, nine arrests, five officers hurt. Here’s a statement just issued by the mayor and police chief.
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