Seattle police sergeant placed on leave, investigated for incident caught on tape

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A Seattle police officer has been placed on paid leave after a video circulated online appearing to show an officer driving toward protesters and calling them "cockroaches."

The Seattle Police Department on Tuesday said an investigation into the unidentified officer's conduct was referred to the Office of Police Accountability.

In the Aug. 13 video, the driver of an unmarked SUV appears to drive onto the sidewalk toward protesters in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood. People on the street quickly moved out of the way, with one person going through bushes to avoid the vehicle.

WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

In another part of the video, a person claiming to be the police officer who drove the vehicle is heard speaking with someone off-camera. The driver provides a police badge number and acknowledges driving onto the sidewalk to catch someone.

"I saw you hit almost a bunch of people," the questioner says.

"Did you see the guy who ran, that I was trying to catch?" the driver responds.

“Are you the one that called them like a bunch of cockroaches?” the questioner asks.

“Yes, yes,” the driver said. “I think it’s very, very… running like cockroaches.”

He later says: "You're going to defund us anyway."

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The department said it received multiple inquiries about the video. At one point, the driver calls Seattle "dirty" and says he still works in the city because he's paid a $200,000 salary to "babysit these knuckleheads every night because they smash up all the businesses."