While conservative talk airwaves and the Seattle media have been talking about the tragic death of Seattle Police Officer Alexandra “Lexi” Harris early on the morning of June 13 when she was struck and killed by a car while she was trying to assist at a traffic accident, there’s been a deafening silence from the far left, including the city council and mayor’s office.
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UPDATE: Tuesday afternoon, the King County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against suspect Roger Lee Owens including felony hit-and-run, theft of a motor vehicle and unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree. Prosecutors are asking for $250,000 bail.
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Harris had just finished her shift and was enroute home along the I-5 corridor through the city, according to a statement from the Seattle Police Officers Guild. She came upon the three-vehicle crash in her private vehicle, a 2005 Toyota 4Runner. According to a probable cause document, nobody saw her arrive, but she “was suddenly at the scene providing assistance.” Friends and admirers say it is the sort of thing she would do. While she was assisting the drivers of the involved vehicles, which included a U-Haul truck, a fourth vehicle heading south swerved to avoid the collision and struck Harris, who died at the scene. The Washington State Patrol is investigating.
But now comes the “rest of the story,” as the late Paul Harvey used to say in his radio broadcasts, which just might have something to do with the collective lockjaw on the left.
A man subsequently identified as Roger Lee Owens was the driver of the U-Haul. He allegedly caused the crash by rear-ending another vehicle. When Officer Harris was struck, Owens hopped into her vehicle and fled. While he apparently rented the U-Haul back on March 3, using an assumed name apparently with false identification, at the time of the crash the U-Haul was listed as stolen.
Owens, a 49-year-old black male, is a fellow with a busy criminal history. At the time of the crash, there were warrants for his arrest, relating to an earlier beef in Seattle involving illegal drugs, a stolen Glock pistol and fake ID.
According to documents obtained by Liberty Park Press and TheGunMag.com, Owens is a convicted felon with seven prior convictions for robbery, possession of controlled substances and promoting prostitution.
He allegedly drove Harris’ Toyota about two miles, took a backpack containing her uniform, badge and duty sidearm and left, only to return to wipe down the vehicle, in an effort to erase his connection to the abandoned SUV. During their efforts to find and arrest Owens, police also rounded up several “associates” who had “outstanding warrants.”
Owens was finally arrested four days later, on June 17, in a hotel room in Bellevue, a city located on the east shore of Lake Washington.
The suspect allegedly put Harris’ sidearm in a garbage can near a Fred Meyer store in north Seattle. It is not clear whether the pistol has been recovered.
Officer Harris leaves behind a fiancé and his two daughters, and her parents, and a department full of friends with whom she carried on through the past 15 months of turmoil during which members of the city council and their allies on the radical left engaged in efforts to defund the police while defending last year’s takeover of six blocks in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood dubbed the “CHOP zone.” There were frequent disturbances, a couple of riot-level situations, incidents of looting, arson and property destruction captured by news crews and private video.
Liberty Park reached out to the office of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to determine whether an official statement of any kind was made in the days following Officer Harris’ death, but did not receive a quick response. A check of the mayor’s website could not reveal any news release or statement. Likewise, as check of the city council’s website did not show any official statement.
This case demonstrated once again something Seattle’s far left leaders stubbornly refuse to acknowledge. Gun control laws don’t prevent firearms from falling into the hands of criminals, and repeat offenders are, well, repeat offenders.
