A Bellevue police officer is currently under investigation for failing to intervene at the scene of a hate crime. Documents charging the suspect, Robert Panera, with malicious harassment detail the officer’s inaction on January 23.
Bellevue PD spokesperson Officer Seth Tyler told KING 5 that a complaint was filed against Detective Jim Lindquist and an ongoing internal investigation is in its final stages.
The incident unfolded around 2:30 p.m. at the Bellevue Transit Center.
Lindquist was in the area, working as an off-duty flagger at a construction site.
Panera was hurling racial slurs and making threats towards African-American people, according to documents. But that’s not what he said told dispatchers when he called 911.
Three Bellevue officers responded to the transit center and contacted Lindquist. The charging documents say Lindquist “was initially dealing with the parties involved,” but the incident was handed off to the on-duty officers.
The officers spoke to Panera and an “older black male,” who Lindquist told the other officers were involved in an altercation and a third male that took off on a bus, according to charging documents.
They spoke with both men, but “were not able to develop probable cause for a crime that involved the two.” An informational report was filed by one of the officers.
Later that day, the male that left the scene on the bus made contact with a Bellevue Police captain to share his account of the afternoon and say that Panera’s statement was incorrect. Over a phone call, he told the captain he began recording a disturbance between Panera and the other male. Panera saw the caller, who is African-American, recording and began yelling at him, according to documents.
The caller told the captain he approached Lindquist to get assistance. Panera continued to yell racial slurs and even lunged at him, say the documents, until “Panera suddenly stopped, turned and walked away.”
The caller said he felt unsafe and immediately boarded a bus to leave the scene and called 911 once he felt safe back at his home. He provided the police captain with four video recordings, according to the documents.
A witness at the scene told police she saw Panera yelling racial slurs at several people. “He singled out each African American, pointed at them” and yelled at them, according to the charging documents. The witness told the captain she observed Lindquist tell the victim, “this happens all the time.”
According to charging documents, Lindquist failed to tell the responding officers about the racial slurs or threats made by Panera.
“All we have right now is an allegation. Until we get to the bottom of it, he’ll continue to do his job,” Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett told the Seattle Times.
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