Tiny Toese jailed for felonies in Washington state

Tusitala “Tiny” Toese – a notorious Proud Boy street brawler that was shot in the leg during a violent clash with anti-fascist protesters this summer in Olympia, Washington — was arrested and imprisoned on warrants from both Washington state and Oregon.

Toese was checked into the Thurston County, Washington prison system on Jan. 5 and is being held not far from the state capitol. He faces three Washington state charges: third-degree assault, a felony, and second-degree criminal trespassing and obstruction of a police officer, both felonies.

Toese is also being held on a litany of serious charges for extradition to Oregon, including three second-degree assault charges, three third-degree assault charges, two riot charges — all felonies — as well as two criminal mischief charges and two unspecified weapons charges.

Despite Toese’s notoriety as a far-right fighter, his arrest was not disclosed to the media. And details of what specific acts he was charged with are not yet public. Neither the prosecutor nor the Thurston County clerk responded to requests for Toese’s indictment documents. The jail offers scant details and says Toese was first arrested in another jurisdiction: “He was brought in from another facility,” says Ken Rhoades, a corrections technician at Thurston County. “I don’t know from which facility.”

Here are the Thurston County (WA) prison records for “Tiny” Toese. pic.twitter.com/Vm03u0vcGN

— Tim Dickinson (@7im) January 18, 2022

While details remain unclear, there is little doubt that the charges stem from Toese’s frequent and high-profile street fights with anti-fascists. Toese, who reportedly stands 6′ 4″ and weighs nearly 300 pounds, nicknamed “Tiny”. He’s in his mid-twenties and lives in Vancouver, Washington. And he’s been a fixture at violent street protests in the Pacific Northwest in recent years. He’s been both associated with the Proud Boys as well as a local far-right group called the Patriot Prayer; both groups play sports by clashing with Antifa on the streets.(A Patriot Prayer member was killed on the streets of Portland in 2020, allegedly by the later Antifa activist Michael Reinoehl shot down by federal marshals, in an act President Trump called “retaliation.”)

Toese was before locked on charges of assault in 2018. Notwithstanding his criminal record, Toese has also reportedly served as a sergeant-at-arms for the Clark County Washington GOP and provided security guards for local Republican officials.

As Rolling Stone reported in a feature last summer about how the Pacific Northwest is turning into a proving ground for violent clashes between political militants from the far right and far left, Toese appeared at a (ironically named) “summer of love” event in Portland last August. It quickly escalated into a brawl between right-wing militants and anti-fascists, and Toese was photographed driving around in the back of a red pickup truck with a paintball gun.

As the summer’s “fight season” dragged on, Toese showed up at a right-wing anti-vaccination event in Olympia, the Washington state capital. There, amid clashes between right-wing and Black Bloc activists, Toese was shot in the leg. An independent journalist recorded the aftermath:

Tiny of the #ProudBoys was filmed here in Olympia, Washington. The shooting took place 0.8 miles from the state capitol after Proud Boys pursued the #Antifa Black Bloc, which appeared within a square block of a medical freedom protest. pic.twitter.com/QMZxFasWRJ

— Jeremy Quinn (@JLeeQuinn) September 4, 2021

Officials in Oregon could not be immediately reached to discuss the charges against Toese in Multnomah County, where Portland is located.

This is an evolving story and will be updated.