FORKS — Authorities planned to release today a portion of a video showing the alleged harassment of a multiracial Spokane family who were mistakenly believed to be members of Antifa at a West End store.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office identified “several” persons of interest from the Wednesday incident that began at Forks Outfitters and continued to the A Road north of the city, Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King said Monday.
No arrests had been made.
“There’s no obvious criminal harassment on the video,” King said in a telephone interview.
“We’re still attempting to identify everybody in the video, but a lot of our investigation is really shifting and focusing on the tree-cutting and what happened up the A Road.”
King said the video would be posted on the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page on Monday.
Social media posts had erroneously said that Antifa, which President Donald Trump has blamed for escalating nationwide protests against racial injustice into violence, was busing members to the North Olympic Peninsula last week.
Members of the Spokane family— a husband and wife, their 16-year-old daughter and the husband’s mother who were traveling in a converted school bus — said they were confronted by several people in the parking lot when they stopped for camping supplies.
“We think that the video will paint a clear picture of at least what the initial contact was like,” King said.
Several vehicles, some with armed occupants, followed the family’s school bus to their campsite on U.S. Forest Service land off the A Road, the family told deputies.
Alder trees were illegally cut along the road, blocking the family’s exit, the Sheriff’s Office has said.
“This is really a series of events with not all of the same individuals involved throughout the course of the whole incident,” King said in a telephone interview.
“That’s created some of the challenges in investigating this. Some folks were only at the initial contact and didn’t have any involvement after that.”
Four Forks High School students used chainsaws to clear the trees from the roadway, allowing the visitors to leave.
“We continue to actively investigate and conduct interviews,” King said.
“We have been in communication with the FBI,” King added.
“They’re eager to participate in the investigation if the facts and circumstances determine that there was a federal crime committed.”
Sheriff’s investigators were trying to obtain more surveillance video from businesses in and around Forks, King said.
The Sheriff’s Office posted an image Monday showing at least four vehicles following the school bus.
“We are seeking information in regards to who the vehicles are associated with and who may have been in the vehicles at the time this photograph was taken,” according to the post.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to phone the Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 360-417-2540 or leave an anonymous tip on the Sheriff’s website at www.clallam.net/sheriff.
The four students who helped the family had not been named by law enforcement.
“I think that we need to reach out to them and be sure that they’re comfortable with that just because of the potential that they’re going to be contacted by a whole lot of people,” King said.
“I don’t know that that’s something that they necessarily want.”
Forks Mayor Tim Fletcher posted an audio message Monday about the incident on the city’s website, www.forkswashington.org.
The Forks City Council was expected to discuss the case at its regular meeting Monday night.
“As we sort through the events of June 3 and allow our county sheriff to complete his investigation, I hope my City Council will join me tonight and apologize formally to this family and ask for their forgiveness so that we can begin to heal,” Fletcher said in the audio clip.
The alleged harassment was published on regional and national news sites.
“We found our community thrust into the nation’s spotlight by individuals that thought they were protecting our community from some outside destructive terrorist group,” Fletcher said.
“They should have relied on our local law enforcement to take care of any perceived threats to our community, real or totally imagined, but instead, they took things into their own hands, and that has never been good for anyone.”
Fletcher said he would support decisions made by the Sheriff’s Office.
“My community will be a better place after this,” he said.
Fletcher said he joined a protest in Forks on Sunday against racism and discrimination. The protest was the latest in a series of peaceful demonstrations on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“I have chosen to be a leader and not a follower of social media instigators,” Fletcher said.
“If you do not like this leader, it is your right to choose someone else this next local election cycle.”
Fletcher ended his statement by asking community members to volunteer.
“Stay Forks Strong,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
