Seattle police arrested 26 people in and around an abandoned downtown hotel that had been occupied for nearly a week by some 200 homeless people rallying under the banner "Operation Homestead."
Officers surrounded the old Pacific Hotel Monday. But police guarded the entrances and moved into the structure at dusk.As officers closed in on the squatters, other "residents" rallied outside to show solidarity with the 24 remaining occupants, as well as to express anger over not being able to go inside and retrieve their belongings.
A riot squad arrived just as police took a dozen homeless inside the building into custody.
Outside the structure, officers arrested another 14 indigents, including one man police led away with a cut on his brow. Officers said the suspect had been resisting arrest.
Monday's eviction came at the request of BankAmerica subsidiary Seafirst Bank, which took possession of the abandoned building two weeks ago in a foreclosure.