The Seattle police department has opened a second internal investigation over reports that members of the Seattle Police Department tried to force a Seattle television station not to run the incriminating video of Gang Unit officers beating up and shouting racial profanities at a Latino man. The investigation came about because of an article published on May 19 by the Seattle-based publication
TheStranger.com which quoted former employees of the Seattle TV station Q13 who said the station had a history of keeping quiet about news that was unflattering to the Seattle Police Department. In exchange, the police department gave the local Fox affiliate preferential treatment. Jud Morris, the videographer who shot the April 17 footage of Gang Unit officers Shandy Cobane, Mary Woollum stomping on a Latino man while yelling racial profanities at him said in TheStranger article that he suspected as much. Morris, who was working for Q13 and using Q13 equipment the night of the incident, later sold the video to KIRO/7 when Q13 refused to air the footage he had. Q13
has always maintained that they owned the footage. TV station spokespeople have said they plan to take Morris to court for posting the video on YouTube, an act he was also fired for. On Friday, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn told local King 5 News that an investigation was on its way. "Now who knows whether those allegations are true or not," he said, "but those are serious allegations and it's the right thing for the Office of Professional Accountability to begin an investigation."
