TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Demonstrators were back outside an immigration detention center in Tacoma Sunday, a day after police shot and killed an armed man there.
Bellingham-based protest leader Maru Mora-Villalpando told KOMO the protest was aimed at the privately-run Tacoma Northwest Detention Center and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement roundups of immigrants that were supposed to begin Sunday.
“This place that is supposed to be the top facility in the country, the fourth largest detention center in the country, it’s really a magnet for horrible things for people,” Villalpando said.
On Saturday, police say 69-year-old Willem Van Spronsen of Vashon Island showed up at the facility with a rifle and incendiary devices and arriving officers shot and killed him.
An acquaintance described him to the Seattle Times as an anarchist and anti-fascist who she believes intended to provoke a fatal conflict.