Recent Activity at Planet Fitness Was U.S. Marshal's, Not ICE

The previous ICE activity reported on Oct 3rd was actually U.S. Marshals.

Mike Harden released this statement:

I had our staff do some further research on this call. It appears to be different than initially reported. Our PD policy is that we do not assist or obstruct in any ICE investigations. So, when the call came out by one resident, that ICE may be doing an operation at Planet Fitness, our sergeant confirmed with our Commander (at that time) that we do not respond unless there was a safety issue.

This morning, I had one of officers look further into the call, he was able to gather that it was a US Marshals operation, and they were arresting a suspect with a very extensive criminal background where he is listed as a suspect in a shooting in Renton and as a suspect in a robbery (and several warrants out of Texas for evading). Additionally, he appears to be involved in drug trafficking and shoplifting throughout various counties in WA. None of the agents/officers identified themselves to store staff and only identifiers were us marshal office and police patches (none of which are our LFP officers). So, at this time, it appears that US Marshals [were] conducting an arrest of a suspect that had warrants. It does not appear to be an ICE operation. This is based on our law enforcement database.

I’ve also asked our officer to reach out to HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) regarding courtesy notification when operating in our jurisdiction, as we were not notified. I may have located a good contact with the US Marshals office and may get clarity on this.

At the Eastside Chiefs meeting this afternoon, I raised the incident; one chief shared a newly adopted policy addressing this exact scenario, which I’m reviewing for possible implementation with our staff to try and minimize any chance of criminal impersonation issues.

Chief Mike Harden

Lake Forest Park Police Department