WA Man Gets Four Years In Arson Of Seattle Gay Bar

From the Justice Department:

A Washington man was sentenced today in federal court for committing a hate crime in connection with an arson at a nightclub and event space in Seattle, Washington.

Kalvinn Garcia, 26, of Sedro Woolley, was sentenced to 48 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his bias-motivated arson at Queer/Bar, a nightclub and event space in Seattle.

According to facts admitted in his guilty plea, on Feb. 24, 2020, Garcia set fire to the contents of a dumpster in the alley directly behind Queer/Bar. Garcia was arrested only minutes after setting the fire.

Garcia admitted to law enforcement that he set the fire and that he targeted Queer/Bar because it angered him to see a sign that said “queer.” Garcia also told officers, “I think it’s wrong that we have a bunch of queers in our society.”

A few weeks after the incident, Garcia told a stranger that his intent in setting the fire was to trap and hurt the people inside. Garcia admitted that, through the use of fire, he willfully attempted to cause bodily injury to the occupants of Queer/Bar because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Mr. Garcia endangered the lives of more than 100 people because of his hatred for members of our LGBTQI+ community,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman for the Western District of Washington.

“We work diligently with our federal, state and local partners to investigate and prosecute acts of hatred against people because of their sexuality or gender identity. This work is a priority because the effect of these hate crimes can linger in communities and traumatize the members of the targeted community for weeks, months or years after.”

The Bay Area Reporter reports:

Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the justice department, stated that she hopes the sentence deters others who want to violate the civil rights of their fellow Americans.

“Bias-motivated violence runs contrary to our values and violates our federal civil rights laws,” Clarke stated. “This sentence should send the message that every person in our nation deserves equal protection under the law regardless of who they love or how they identify and that those carrying out similar acts of violence against the LGBTQI+ community will be brought to justice.”

This was not Garcia’s first encounter with the law, as the B.A.R. reported last year. A case search on the Washington state courts website revealed his being the defendant in eight criminal felony cases in his home county of Skagit, in southwestern Washington, prior to 2020 and dating back to July 2015.

Kalvinn Garcia had pleaded guilty to setting a dumpster on the fire in the alley behind Queer/Bar in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. https://t.co/DptqmSBflE

— KIRO 7 (@KIRO7Seattle) October 3, 2023

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