The women were the targets of excessive force after a man called 911 and falsely claimed they had a gun, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
SEATTLE — What began as a dispute over a parking spot ended with guns drawn and two young Muslim women thrown to the ground by police — an incident that is now the focus of a formal investigation by the Seattle Office of Police Accountability.
According to the Washington chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the two women — both in their 20s and wearing hijabs — were the targets of excessive force after a man called 911 on Feb. 4 and falsely claimed the pair had a gun.
“One of the sisters was thrown to the ground, and an officer had his knee on her back and she’s a smaller-built young woman,” said Sabrene Odeh, a legal advocate with CAIR-WA.
The encounter, captured in part by police reports and witness accounts, which have not been made public, escalated quickly. The women, returning to their vehicle after a verbal argument over a parking space, were met by several Seattle police officers with weapons drawn, ordering them to the ground.
“What they didn’t realize was, when they came back, they were confronted by a number of police officers with their guns drawn, screaming at them to get down,” Odeh said. “It was a very, very traumatic incident for them.”
CAIR is now pushing for accountability — not only from the officers involved but also from the individual who made the call. The organization is calling for criminal charges against the man who reported the women, saying he knowingly made a false police report motivated by the women’s race and religion.
“They’re extremely traumatized,” Odeh said. “They described not wanting to leave their house out of fear of another interaction with police, or someone calling in another false allegation against them as Muslim women.”
CAIR believes this incident is part of a larger pattern of racially and religiously motivated profiling that puts communities of color at greater risk during encounters with law enforcement.
“And I think the message we’re sending is: you can’t just target the Muslim community and get away with it,” Odeh said.
The Seattle Police Department declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation by the city’s Office of Police Accountability.
A case tracker on the OPA’s website confirms a complaint has been received and is under review, a process that typically takes about 30 days.
