Seattle mayor once arrested while brandishing firearm at Council Bluffs (IA) casino

The story of a 1996 altercation in the parking lot of a Council Bluffs casino has seen new light after anonymous tips were made to news outlets in Seattle.

Bruce Harrell, who was elected as the mayor of Seattle in 2021, allegedly confronted a person with a weapon and resisted arrest nearly three decades ago while outside the Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs.

The now-mayor said the incident was an example of racial profiling, and it inspired his position on police accountability.

Harrell moved from Seattle to Omaha in the mid-1990s with his wife Joanne, who had accepted a job as vice president of the US West telecommunications company based in Omaha.

In 1996, Harrell, an Omaha attorney, was nominated to fill a seat on the Omaha Housing Authority’s board of commissioners by Hal Daub, the former mayor of Omaha. Previous reporting from the Omaha World-Herald indicates that the mayor’s office had previously promised the next OHA board appointee would be a resident living in one of their properties.

Harrell allegedly brandished a pistol while confronting a person or group about a parking space. He was also allegedly not cooperative with police, former Pottawattamie County attorney Rick Crowl said in a statement to the World-Herald.

At the time, Harrell said he had received a “barrage” of threats after his nomination was publicly announced.

Statements from Harrell, and a 1996 letter from Kutak Rock chairman David Jacobson to peers at the firm, indicate he considered or had already taken steps to revoke his nomination before his arrest, due to the death threats against his family members’ lives.

Jacobson’s letter says Harrell believed a car followed him to the casino, and that Harrell mistakenly believed one of the people in the vehicle as someone who had previously made threats against him. Harrell’s own statements, as reported in the World-Herald, align with the letter. He also said that he displayed his pistol, but did not aim at the individual.

An Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation report obtained by KUOW, Seattle’s NPR affiliate, states that multiple witnesses saw Harrell flash a silver pistol while behind the wheel of his Jeep in the casino’s parking lot.

Harrell said that a man, Jose Sanchez, who was driving another vehicle, took his parking spot. He initially claimed to the responding gambling enforcement officer that he did not display a pistol. His friend, who rode with him to the casino, said there was no handgun in Harrell’s vehicle.

Harrell refused to be handcuffed while his vehicle was searched, leading to a struggle with the officer that resulted in his arrest on suspicion of interference with official acts. The officer then found an unloaded handgun with a clip of ammunition in his vehicle. He did not have a permit in Iowa for the handgun.

Harrell was charged with three criminal counts: carrying weapons, assault using or displaying a weapon, and interference with official acts.

Crowl, stating that Harrell’s reaction amid threats seemed somewhat justified, used the practice of deferred prosecution to delay sentencing in the case for several months. He would require Harrell to apologize to arresting officers before dismissing all charges. Harrell waived his right to a trial as part of the process.

At the time, he mentioned his family’s “problems in the Black community” to Crowl, the World-Herald reported.

Now, as Seattle news outlets unearth reports nearly three decades old, Harrell is acknowledging the incident and sharing his perspective, which he has refrained from discussing since the 1996 incident.

“Because of this situation, and other instances from my youth of being unfairly targeted by bias, this is one reason I have been a strong advocate for police accountability,” Harrell said in a statement to the Seattle Times.

Harrell is biracial — he is the son of a Black father and Japanese mother, according to his mayoral campaign website. Sanchez, who allegedly stole Harrell’s spot, was identified as Hispanic by Crowl in the World-Herald.

“Mayor Harrell made it clear to the officer he never pointed a gun at anyone, which was a response to the question he was asked by the officer,” said Jamie Housen, the mayor’s spokesperson in a statement to KUOW. “The officer may have interpreted that as the mayor saying he never showed anyone the gun.”

In an opinion segment, local KIRO Newsradio personalities “Jake and Spike” questioned whether Harrell’s arrest should matter to the Seattle community.

“I don’t think it matters. It doesn’t matter to me,” said Spike O’Neil. “It will matter to others, people who, I think, are looking for reason to be unhappy or to oppose the mayor for his points of view, his political stances.”

O’Neil’s cohost Jake Skorheim questioned why the attorney would’ve resisted arrest.

“He’s a 36-year-old man, and he’s there in a government position. If a police officer ... comes up and arrests me, I’m probably not going to resist that arrest,” Skorheim said. “If that was part of his charge, resisting arrest, I’d like to know more.”

Neither Crowl or current Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber returned calls for comment from The Nonpareil made after the Seattle news reports.

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