Memorial Service for Trooper Gadd Tuesday in Everett, Plus an Update on the Suspect

WSP Trooper Gadd died on 3-2-2024

The memorial service for fallen Washington State Patrol Trooper Christopher Gadd is scheduled to take place at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, at the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett.

The service will be open to the public with a ceremonial procession preceding the memorial. Expect heavier than usual traffic as well as downtown street closures around the arena.

The ceremonial procession will begin at the Tulalip Resort and Casino and end at the Angel of the Winds Arena ahead of the 1 p.m. memorial service. All times are tentative and subject to change due to logistics and/or traffic. There are expected to be law enforcement marine units in the bay along Marine View Drive as the procession moves past.

The procession schedule:

• START at Tulalip Resort Casino gravel parking lot (27th Avenue / George S. Williams Senior Avenue Northeast)
• Merge onto southbound Interstate 5 from 88th Street / Quil Ceda Way
  Exit Interstate 5 at Exit #194 (Everett Avenue)
• Stay right at Everett Avenue City Center
• Turn right onto Everett Avenue
• Turn right on Broadway
• Exit onto Marine View Drive
• Left on East Marine View Drive
• Left on Hewitt
• ARRIVE at Angel of the Winds Arena

Doors to the arena are not open to the public until noon, with the ceremony starting at 1 p.m.

Update on the Suspect:

The suspect, Raul Benitez Santana has been charged with vehicular homicide, the county prosecutor’s office said last Tuesday.

Santana, a 32-year-old Mexican citizen who entered the US illegally “at an unknown date and time, without admission or parole by an immigration officer, admitted to smoking a bowl of marijuana at approximately 9pm” and “admitted to having 1 drink of alcohol prior to the collision” according to the arrest affidavit.

Santana is being held in the Snohomish County Jail and is facing vehicular homicide charges in the death of 27-year-old trooper Christopher Gadd.

It’s not known when Santana entered the country but an ICE spokesperson confirmed he’s had at least four run-ins with the law in Washington State.

This incident is stirring up national debate because if Washington wasn’t a sanctuary state, Santana could have been deported after being arrested in previous incidents.