THE JESSE SAREY STORY
On view at the Wing Luke Museum from February - July 2022 in the East Lightwell
ABOUT THE JESSE SAREY MEMORIAL QUILT
Created by the Social Justice Sewing Academy
February - July 2022
East Lightwell
The memorial quilt was created in 2021 by Tuna Chatterjee, Georgette Gagne, Gwen Marceline, Liz Marmion, and Lija Yang, as part of the Social Justice Sewing Academy’s Remembrance Project in honor of Jesse Sarey (July 10, 1992 - May 31, 2019). The quilt is featured in the book Stitching Stolen Lives, published in 2021. The Sarey family donated the quilt to the Wing Luke Museum in 2022 to honor the legacy of Jesse’s mother.
Photos courtesy of the Social Justice Sewing Academy
JESSE’S STORY
JULY 10, 1992 - MAY 31, 2019
Jesse Sarey was born in Seattle in 1992, the son of Cambodian refugees. He grew up as part of a large extended family – “the fambam,” as he called them. Jesse and his brother Torell both spent time living with foster mother Elaine Simons, and Elaine stayed connected to the family after the boys aged out of the system.
Jesse loved sports, especially basketball. A highlight of his childhood was a special one-on-one youth workshop with Seattle Supersonics star Rashard Lewis. When he wasn’t playing basketball as a teen, Jesse was breakdancing. He was known for his awesome backflips and spins.
Jesse struggled with mental illness and housing instability. On the night he died, there was a 911 call for mental health backup that never came. He was unarmed when he was shot in the chest and then in the head by Auburn Police Officer Jeff Nelson, who had a long record of violent behavior. Jesse was 26 years old.
Officer Nelson has been charged with murder, in the first such trial in Washington State since I-940 took effect in 2018. Before I-940, prosecutors had to prove that a police officer acted with “malice;” now the standard is whether the officer’s actions were “reasonable.” Elaine Simons notes that many people who lost loved ones to police violence pushed for years to enact this change, including family members of Charleena Lyles, Giovann Joseph-McDade, and Che Taylor. “All these people I didn’t know at the time were putting something in place that now our family benefits from.”
Jeff Nelson’s trial has been rescheduled from June 2022 and is set to begin in Fall 2022 or in 2023.
KARI NGA SAREY
AUGUST 8, 1973 – JUNE 17, 2021
Kari Nga Sarey survived Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge years and came to the U.S. in the 1980s. The loss of her son Jesse to police violence in 2019 was devastating. Kari and the rest of the Sarey family asked Jesse’s foster mother Elaine Simons to be their advocate as they navigate the legal system, and Kari was at Elaine’s side throughout the process, always present at court dates and rallies.
In June 2021, Kari fell ill, went into a coma, and never recovered. Says Elaine, “I truly believe she died of a broken heart.”
FURTHER READING
In the late 1970s, the Cambodian Genocide changed the course of destiny for millions of people. In subsequent years, hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing atrocities orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge regime have found new homes outside of Cambodia while rebuilding Cambodian community and culture under the combined weight of culture shock, racism, and generational trauma. The Sarey family’s experience illustrates the intersecting challenges that families of refugees face in America, who face new systems of power and oppression while also coping with trauma that affects the mental health of communities for generations.
JUSTICE FOR JESSE
A grassroots campaign organized by the Jesse Sarey family and community supporters was created to raise awareness around the issue of police-involved killings of civilians experiencing mental health crises and a petition to hold Officer Jeff Nelson accountable for the wrongful deaths of Jesse Sarey and two other victims in separate incidents.