Estimate Reaches up to One Million Dollars After Vandalism at Washington State Capitol
Damage assessment indicates costs between $623,000 and $914,000 following Oct. 5 incident in Olympia
An incident on the night of October 5 at the Washington state Capitol in Olympia has led to an estimated repair bill ranging from six hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars to nine hundred and fourteen thousand dollars, excluding taxes.
The damage follows a break-in and ten-minute rampage during which an intruder forced entry through a window, burned flags, tipped over busts of George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., set fire to a historic rug in the State Reception Room and damaged drapes and flooring.
The Legislature’s reception room houses irreplaceable artifacts including a chenille rug from 1928 and original mohair draperies.
The state’s Department of Enterprise Services (DES) says the largest single cost driver is restoration of the rug, with estimates of four hundred forty-three thousand dollars to seven hundred nineteen thousand dollars alone.
Storing the rug during restoration is projected to cost seven hundred fifty dollars per month.
Additional damage-restoration estimates include between nineteen thousand three hundred and thirty-four thousand two hundred dollars for the burned drapery tie-backs and other textiles.
The suspect, identified as a twenty-nine-year-old man, has been charged with burglary and malicious mischief and is undergoing competency evaluation.
Authorities state the act was not politically motivated but tied to a mental‐health crisis.
The DES has temporarily closed affected spaces, catalogued damaged items, and heightened security across the Capitol campus as investigations and repairs continue.
The damage follows a break-in and ten-minute rampage during which an intruder forced entry through a window, burned flags, tipped over busts of George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., set fire to a historic rug in the State Reception Room and damaged drapes and flooring.
The Legislature’s reception room houses irreplaceable artifacts including a chenille rug from 1928 and original mohair draperies.
The state’s Department of Enterprise Services (DES) says the largest single cost driver is restoration of the rug, with estimates of four hundred forty-three thousand dollars to seven hundred nineteen thousand dollars alone.
Storing the rug during restoration is projected to cost seven hundred fifty dollars per month.
Additional damage-restoration estimates include between nineteen thousand three hundred and thirty-four thousand two hundred dollars for the burned drapery tie-backs and other textiles.
The suspect, identified as a twenty-nine-year-old man, has been charged with burglary and malicious mischief and is undergoing competency evaluation.
Authorities state the act was not politically motivated but tied to a mental‐health crisis.
The DES has temporarily closed affected spaces, catalogued damaged items, and heightened security across the Capitol campus as investigations and repairs continue.
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