The City of Seattle will be clearing out a homeless encampment along I-90 after an uptick of rock-throwing attacks on drivers on the freeway, according to KOMO.
City officials and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) decided to take action after receiving hundreds of reports of rocks, signs, cement blocks, and other debris getting hurled at motorists for months. The camp is located west of the Mount Baker Tunnel, close to where some of those debris-throwing incidents were reported.
Four people have been taken into custody in connection to these attacks, and three of them have been linked to the camp, reporters learned.
WSDOT Secretary Roger Millar said the encampment is being cleared out because they post a public safety risk in regards to the incidents. He also clarified that this won't be happening to other homeless camps.
"What we can’t do about that is this homeless camp ‘Whack-a-Mole,’ where you clean one up and they move across the street. That just doesn’t work,” said Millar, “It’s a waste of resource and frankly, it’s not humane.”
Some camp-dwellers claim they received a notice to move just a few days before the scheduled sweep.
“Because of the rock-throwing incidents, that we now became important to some people - as far as unfair, the fact that I have to live here is unfair," Eric Jordan, a four-year resident of the camp, told KOMO.
The sweep is set to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday (July 22). Outreach workers will also be assisting people living at the camp.
Officials plan on having crews modify the fencing around the area to discourage anyone else from moving in, according to the DOT.
WSP said over 200 debris-throwing attacks on I-90 and I-5 have been reported so far.