The incident took place at 4a.m. at the Northwest Detention Center, a privately owned detention center for undocumented immigrants. Four officers arrived at the scene and called to van Spronsen, who they claim was also wearing satchel and carrying flares, before reporting "shots fired". According to the statement by the Tacoma Police Department, Van Spronsen who was reported to have been carrying a rifle "attempted to ignite a large propane tank and set our buildings on fire", and "continued throwing lit objects and firebombs at the buildings and cars". Friends of van Spronsen received farewell letters from him. They describe him as an anarchist and anti-fascist.
Perpetrator
Willem van Spronsen was a carpenter and a resident of Vashon, Washington who had been arrested previously during a demonstration at the same ICE detention center in June 2018. In the earlier incident he had a physical altercation with a police officer during an effort to free a protester who was detained. Police have alleged that van Spronsen was armed with a baton and a folding knife. According to The Washington Post, van Spronsen was an anarchist who claimed to be associated with antifascists known as antifa. Van Spronsen's daughter, who describes herself as an advocate of liberal pacifism, describes her father as a supporter of anarchism but had written that she disagreed with him "on some principles, such as the use of force and weapons in the fight". Van Spronsen had been active in social media under the pseudonym Emma Durutti, a portmanteau of the names of historic anarchists Emma Goldman and Buenaventura Durruti. Van Spronsen was also a member of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club and active in the Occupy Wall Street protests. Van Spronsen had formerly been involved with Alcoholics Anonymous. Van Spronsen had written a manifesto detailing what he viewed as a political justification for attacking the ICE facility. In this document, van Spronsen stated that "it's time to take action against the forces of evil", citing "highly profitable detention/concentration camps and a battle over the semantics".
