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Anti-gun civic "leader" who violated gun law gets
Josey1
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Urban League president sorry about gun
By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times staff reporter
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James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, agreed to perform 80 hours of community service to resolve criminal charges that he carried a firearm while attending a meeting on a high-school campus.
"Bottom line is: I apologize," he said yesterday. "I apologize to my family, my friends and the school district."
Kelly paid no fine but surrendered his handgun to his attorney. The City Attorney's Office did not seek to revoke Kelly's concealed-weapon permit.
A Seattle Municipal Court judge approved the agreement between Kelly's and the city's attorneys on Monday. If Kelly complies with the agreement, charges will be dismissed after a year.
In the past decade, only five other adults have been charged with the misdemeanor of bringing a firearm on school grounds, said Kathryn Harper, a spokeswoman for the City Attorney's Office. Firing a weapon on school property is a felony.
The plea arrangement with Kelly is typical of someone with no prior convictions, she said.
In earlier interviews, Kelly said he and his family had received threats in recent months from people opposed to the Urban League's plans to develop a former school in the Central Area into apartments, offices and an African-American heritage museum.
On the night of May 29, Kelly told police that during a community meeting that evening at Rainier Beach High School he'd had a run-in with Kwame Garrett, 25, son of community activist James Cordell Garrett.
On Aug. 2, the elder Garrett, also known as Omari Tahir-Garrett, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for assaulting then-Mayor Paul Schell with a bullhorn last summer. He claims to be the true leader of the heritage-museum effort at Colman School, and he opposes the Urban League's plans.
In his statement to police, Kelly wrote that the younger Garrett confronted him about the Urban League's proposals and blocked him from leaving a hallway outside the school's performing-arts center. "I decided I needed to do something or I was going to be attacked," he wrote.
He said he placed his hand on a gun under his coat but did not pull it out or point it. Observers broke up the altercation, and Kelly left the building.
In an open letter to the community yesterday, Kelly wrote: "Today, no one who is not in my position can understand the regret and remorse I have felt since May 29, 2002, in trying to respond to two individuals who unlawfully detained me at a community meeting held at Rainier Beach High School."
"We all must be held accountable for our actions. I fully accept my responsibility."
Kwame Garrett was arrested yesterday for allegedly assaulting police officers. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/134508877_kelly08m.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times staff reporter
E-mail this article
Print this article
Search web archive
James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, agreed to perform 80 hours of community service to resolve criminal charges that he carried a firearm while attending a meeting on a high-school campus.
"Bottom line is: I apologize," he said yesterday. "I apologize to my family, my friends and the school district."
Kelly paid no fine but surrendered his handgun to his attorney. The City Attorney's Office did not seek to revoke Kelly's concealed-weapon permit.
A Seattle Municipal Court judge approved the agreement between Kelly's and the city's attorneys on Monday. If Kelly complies with the agreement, charges will be dismissed after a year.
In the past decade, only five other adults have been charged with the misdemeanor of bringing a firearm on school grounds, said Kathryn Harper, a spokeswoman for the City Attorney's Office. Firing a weapon on school property is a felony.
The plea arrangement with Kelly is typical of someone with no prior convictions, she said.
In earlier interviews, Kelly said he and his family had received threats in recent months from people opposed to the Urban League's plans to develop a former school in the Central Area into apartments, offices and an African-American heritage museum.
On the night of May 29, Kelly told police that during a community meeting that evening at Rainier Beach High School he'd had a run-in with Kwame Garrett, 25, son of community activist James Cordell Garrett.
On Aug. 2, the elder Garrett, also known as Omari Tahir-Garrett, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for assaulting then-Mayor Paul Schell with a bullhorn last summer. He claims to be the true leader of the heritage-museum effort at Colman School, and he opposes the Urban League's plans.
In his statement to police, Kelly wrote that the younger Garrett confronted him about the Urban League's proposals and blocked him from leaving a hallway outside the school's performing-arts center. "I decided I needed to do something or I was going to be attacked," he wrote.
He said he placed his hand on a gun under his coat but did not pull it out or point it. Observers broke up the altercation, and Kelly left the building.
In an open letter to the community yesterday, Kelly wrote: "Today, no one who is not in my position can understand the regret and remorse I have felt since May 29, 2002, in trying to respond to two individuals who unlawfully detained me at a community meeting held at Rainier Beach High School."
"We all must be held accountable for our actions. I fully accept my responsibility."
Kwame Garrett was arrested yesterday for allegedly assaulting police officers. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/134508877_kelly08m.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878