Neighboring WA sheriffs clash on Facebook over Minneapolis ICE killing

The sheriffs of Thurston and Pierce counties got into a heated online argument in the wake of Renee Good’s death in Minneapolis, accusing each other of cowardice, laziness and racist policing.

One sheriff has apologized, while the other isn’t planning on backing down.

What happened

It all started when Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank posted on social media hours after Good, a 37-year-old mother, was shot to death by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Jan. 7.

Good’s killing sparked national outrage and protests aimed at ICE and a furious, partisan debate over whether the shooting of the woman who was driving her car was necessary.

PSA: if law enforcement tells you to stop. STOP,” Swank’s post to X read. “You can always sue later if your rights were violated. Even if you are right, do you want to be dead right?”

Swank–who has faced criticism over social media posts about transgender people – said in an interview Monday that he posted about Good’s death to keep others from getting hurt. However, Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders took it differently.

Sanders said in a post to Facebook that he was disturbed by Good’s killing and criticized the policing practices that led up to it before turning his attention to Swank.

“I find it equally disturbing that we have an elected sheriff in our state mocking Renee’s death on social media,” Sanders wrote on Facebook. “Even when justified, people being killed by law enforcement isn’t funny. It’s not funny for the families of the deceased, it’s not funny for the family of the officer, and it’s not funny for the officers who pull the trigger. Mocking Renee’s death isn’t ‘provocative,’ it’s small and unbecoming of even the lowest standards of elected office.”

Even though Sanders didn’t name-drop the neighboring sheriff, Swank believed the post was about him. He replied in the comments of the Facebook post, saying he didn’t mock Good’s death before diving into more personal attacks. He went on to call Sanders an “’altruistic’ narcissist.”

“For a guy who likes to have a tough guy image (posing all the time) you sure are a coward,” Swank wrote. “Afraid to call the sheriff out by name. How very brave of you.”

Both Sanders and Swank went on to accuse each other of using or allowing excessive force, racially prejudiced policing and misconduct. Since taking office, Sanders has made it a point to go on patrol with his deputies.

“The last time you did anything remotely relevant to police work, you were looking for a pay phone to call dispatch on so you could write down the address for your next coffee break,” Sanders wrote. “… Don’t forget, you can’t profile and hit people with a stick for having different colored skin anymore.”

“This is exactly why the citizens of Thurston County should elect someone else next year, and I will help that person,” Swank wrote back. “You are the head of a large agency. You are the final decision maker. You should not be out on the street arresting people. But since you are so arrogant you can’t see that. I saw the video where you assaulted the POC man with a taser and a K9. You should be charged with a crime and removed from office. You are a punk.”

“POC” is an abbreviation for “person of color.”

The aftermath

Sanders’ post garnered thousands of comments. The responses were mixed.

“@Sheriff Sanders lol. Ok. So it sounds as though children are at play here. Let’s grow up and be adults,” one commenter wrote.

“@Sheriff Sanders Swank needs the Fire Department, not the PD, after those burns,” another said.

Sanders apologized to the citizens and employees of both Pierce and Thurston counties in a Facebook post the following day.

“I recently engaged in an online encounter with the Sheriff of Pierce County that didn’t warrant a response, and I failed to meet the expectations I’ve set for myself,” he wrote.

In an email to The Seattle Times, he reiterated his apology and said nothing about the back-and-forth was “productive.” Sanders did not respond to an interview request for this story.

Pierce and Thurston counties share a roughly 35-mile border from Puget Sound to the foothills of the Cascades, with deputies on either side of the county line often called to back each other up on 911 calls.

Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs declined to comment on the exchange.

Swank invited Sanders to co-host a community meeting to discuss their opinions on policy and policing.

“I’m extending the olive branch,” Swank said in the interview. “I’m cool with talking about things and hashing it all out.”

Sanders declined, telling Swank in an email that he thinks a meeting would cause more harm than good, given the subject matter. Swank forwarded the email chain to The Times.

“I think you and I both know that nothing regarding immigration enforcement is likely to get better until the state and federal government are willing to work through their differences and find compromise, which seems highly unlikely at this point,” Sanders wrote. “We both want what is best for the citizens of our respective counties, even if we have different philosophies on how we get there.”

“Thank you for the response, but I think the meeting could be much broader than immigration,” Swank responded. “We can talk about all kinds of things: homelessness, property crimes, pursuits, use of force, leadership philosophy … The sky’s the limit. If you change your mind, let me know.”

Sanders, who posts on Facebook frequently, has identified himself as a political independent.

Last May, he posted: “When I filed to run for Sheriff three years ago, I unapologetically registered as an Independent under the belief that the best law enforcement product stayed as far away from identity politics as possible. This is a core belief I refuse to surrender.”

Swank is an outspoken conservative, often prodding the state’s leading Democrats on social media. He ran as a Republican in past congressional bid, but the sheriff’s race was nonpartisan.

Both sheriffs have faced controversy in the past.

Swank worked for the Seattle Police Department for 33 years before he retired in 2023. He came under fire that same year for making disparaging comments about transgender people and defending the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After he retired, former interim Chief Sue Rahr signed a disciplinary report over his social media presence and said he would have been fired had he still worked for the department. Swank, at the time, called the report “politically motivated.”

Sanders faced a misconduct investigation while running for sheriff in 2022, which he called a political move by his then-boss and political opponent. He also pushed back on complaints about how aggressively Thurston County police were pursuing suspects in 2024.

Swank also clashed with Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett in May when he proposed the sheriff’s office pen an agreement with ICE to assist them with detainments.

Swank said he’s going to keep speaking out.

“We have politicians that are trying to incite people by saying, ‘ICE are not humans.’ ‘ICE are not cops.’ ‘ICE are abducting people.’ And people who already have mental health issues are thinking like, ‘Oh my gosh, they really are abducting people,’ things like that,” Swank said. “And it’s just making things worse.

Correction: This story was updated to reflect Sheriff Keith Swank retired in 2023, before a Seattle Police Department discipline report was released, admonishing him for past online comments.