‘Go Back to India’: Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill Rep. Pramila Jayapal at Her Home in Seattle
- Brett Forsell, 48, yelled “I’m going to kill you” at the Indian American Congresswoman.
Seattle police have arrested a man accused of threatening to kill Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) this weekend. The suspect, identified as Brett Forsell, 48, was found standing in the street near the Seattle home of the lawmaker on July 9 night “with his hands in the air and a handgun holstered on his waist,” The Hill reported on July 12.
Citing a statement from an officer, The Hill report said a neighbor heard the suspect yell “Go back to India, I’m going to kill you.” The neighbor also saw Forsell’s vehicle drive by Jayapal’s residence “about three times while yelling profanities,” the report added.
Jayapal’s office released a statement on July 12 confirming that the incident occurred at her Seattle home on Saturday night when she was present. “The Congresswoman and her family are safe and appreciate the many calls and good wishes she is receiving from constituents,” the statement said. “She is very grateful for the swift and professional response from the Seattle Police Department, the US Capitol Police, and the FBI investigators who are working together diligently on the investigation, and ensuring that she and her family stay safe.” As it is an ongoing investigation, Jayapal will not be commenting further at this time, the statement added.
The neighbor also saw Forsell’s vehicle drive by Jayapal’s residence “about three times while yelling profanities,” the report added.
She echoed similar sentiments in a tweet. “Thank you to everyone who has called and sent good wishes after the incidents of Saturday night at our house. My family and I are safe, and we are grateful to Seattle Police Dept, Capitol Police & the FBI for their swift and professional work on this situation & investigation.”
Meanwhile, Casey McNerthney, a prosecutor’s spokesperson told The Seattle Times that a judge on July 11 ordered that Forsell “remain jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail.” However, the judge denied the prosecutor’s request for “an anti-harassment order protecting Jayapal,” McNerthney added.
Jayapal, 56, became the first Indian American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016. A Democrat, she represents Washington’s 7th Congressional District, which encompasses most of Seattle and its surrounding areas including Shoreline, Vashon Island, Lake Forest Park, Edmonds, and parts of Burien and Normandy Park.
She was born in India and came to the U.S. at 16 to begin college at Georgetown University. She later received her MBA from Northwestern University, and worked in a number of industries in both the public and private sectors, according to her website. She is one of only two dozen naturalized citizens currently serving in the U.S. Congress.
She then published her first book in “2000, Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland.” She has since published a second book, “Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman’s Guide to Politics and Political Change.”
Before her election to the U.S. Congress, she served as a state senator. Before serving in elected office, she spent twenty years working internationally and domestically in global public health and development and as an award-winning national advocate for women’s, immigrant, civil, and human rights. She spent almost a decade working on global health and development for the international nonprofit organization, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), and spent 12 years as the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica, the largest immigration advocacy organization in Washington State and one of the largest in the country.
She is married to Steve Williamson, a long-time labor leader and strategist, and is the proud mother of a transgender daughter name Kashika, a stepson named Michael, and a 65-pound labradoodle, Otis.
(Top photo, Pramila Jayapal/Facebook)