Gun-toting off-duty cop confronts family for BLM display. He’s on leave, WA police say

Gabriel Fabian and his family have been showing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement by creating chalk displays in their Selah, Washington, neighborhood for nearly two months, he told McClatchy.

The events are free and open to everyone who wants to join.

But not everyone supports their efforts, including the city of Selah and a neighbor, who works for the Zillah Police Department, Fabian said.

A confrontation with a neighbor, identified as Matt Steadman, a Zillah police officer, was captured on video and posted to Fabian’s Facebook page on July 26. Steadman was off-duty at the time, but he is seen carrying a gun on his hip in the video.

“I understand it’s his Second Amendment right to have a gun, but the fact that he was so mad, he ran to his closet or wherever he keeps his gun, grabbed it, put it on his hip, marched straight outside to yell at us about chalk, he yelled at the police officer, was cursing while there were about 15 kids was, how I feel, overboard,” Fabian said. “Some of them were super scared about what happened.”

Steadman walks up to Fabian, gets in close and calls Fabian a “f--- punk,” the video shows. After confronting Fabian, Steadman approaches a Selah police car and shares a brief exchange with the officer inside.

Steadman can be heard saying, “f--- off,” before slamming the car door in the officer’s face, the video shows. Steadman is not seen touching or using the gun at any point in the video.

Fabian knew it was Steadman because the 20-year-old had previously wrestled with Steadman’s sons, Fabian told McClatchy.

“They brought me home, they fed me at the tournaments, they’ve taken care of me,” Fabian said.

The Zillah Police Department placed Steadman on administrative leave, pending an investigation, KIMA reported. Steadman says he felt threatened by the protesters because they were outside his house, according to KIMA.

The Police Department did not return a message left by McClatchy News.

“None of the event at all was intended to provoke him into doing something or to fish for a reaction at all,” Fabian told McClatchy. “We weren’t trying to make anybody mad, we were just trying to have another event at our house to appreciate the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Earlier in July, a Selah police officer warned Fabian and a group of demonstrators that if they continued to use chalk to show their support on the sidewalk outside city hall, they would be charged with a crime, The New York Times reported.

The month before, Fabian was using the chalk to write “Black Lives Matter” on the street outside his home, according to the publication. The city cleared the chalk with a street sweeper by the end of the week, The New York Times reported.

Fabian’s friends went and drew more, only for the city to wash it away again. And again. And again, according to The New York Times. On July 25, Fabian hosted a chalk-drawing event in his neighborhood, only to have that washed away yet again by the city two days later, Fabian told McClatchy.

Anyone participating in the event is encouraged to write sayings like, “Black Lives Matter,” or “Racial Equality,” but they cannot write profanity or negative sayings,” Fabian said.

“At least when it’s at our house, we try our best to control what goes on,” Fabian told McClatchy. “We did a hopscotch theme, because the city won’t go around erasing hopscotch.”

The Selah police chief sent a letter to Fabian’s older brother, saying the chalk was “by definition, graffiti,” the Times reported.

The City of Selah defines ‘graffiti’ as “any unauthorized inscription, figure, etching or mark of any type that is written, marked, etched, scratched, sprayed, drawn, painted, or engraved on or otherwise affixed to any surface of public or private property,” according to the city’s municipal code. Graffiti is considered unauthorized if it is “not expressly permitted by the owner or legal occupant of the property.”

About a month ago, Fabian received another letter from the Selah city attorney, threatening him with a year of jail time and a fine of up to $5,000 if Fabian continued with the events, Fabian told McClatchy. Fabian has not received any further communication from the city attorney or the police chief since then, despite his continued chalking, he told McClatchy.

The city’s municipal code says the punishment for graffiti is a “civil infraction penalty” for $250.

“We’re not going to stop,” Fabian told KNDU. “We are going to keep going until there’s a change in the city council.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 4:32 PM.