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When Tirhas Tesfatsion died in custody at the Lynnwood jail in 2021, community members demanded local government and law enforcement overhaul the City’s incarceration system.
Five years later, about 200 people gathered Monday to celebrate the grand opening of the new Lynnwood Crisis Care Center. Local officials described it as a physical promise to protect rather than penalize residents in times of need, providing a 23-hour alternative to emergency rooms and jails for individuals experiencing behavioral health crises.
The facility is a $19.9 million capital project funded entirely by state and county grants, including $15 million from the Washington State Capital Budget, $3 million from Snohomish County and $1.9 million from the Department of Commerce. To support ongoing operations for the underinsured and uninsured, the state allocated an additional $39 million.
On July 12, 2021, Lynnwood police booked Tesfatsion into jail for driving under the influence. About 36 hours later, police found her unresponsive and the medical examiner later ruled her death a suicide. Following significant public outrage, the Lynnwood City Council called for an external investigation into the matter.
The investigation found the police working the night of Tesfatsion’s death were negligent and failed to perform their duties. Although jail staff were required to check on inmates every 60 minutes, Tesfatsion was allegedly left alone for three hours prior to her death. The City later paid Tesfatsion’s family $1.75 million in a settlement finalized in September 2023.
At the time of Tesfatsion’s death, Lynnwood was in the midst of a major project to rebuild its jail and courthouse. The construction plans were complete and set for Council approval when State Rep. Lauren Davis proposed the Council delay its vote on the construction plans and reduce the planned Community Justice Center’s jail expansion by 30% to build a crisis facility in its place.
“This behind me, this was supposed to be 36 jail beds, and it’s not. It’s a place of healing and hope of refuge and resilience,” Davis said.
While celebrating the opening of the new center and a new chapter for Lynnwood, Police Chief Cole Langdon acknowledged the tragic reality of the situation.
“At the end of the day, we broke a promise,” Langdon said, ”We have procedures in place, we have processes in place to ensure the safety of anybody that’s in our care, and we dropped the ball. And for that, I’m sorry for Tirhas Tesfatsion. The ball will not be dropped while I am here.”
Langdon said he was the one who notified Tesfatsion’s family of her death. He said the “wailing” and the “raw human emotion” in that home was something he’ll never forget.
As the family’s lawsuit against the City was settled, Langdon said he met with Tesfatsioin’s oldest son. He called for the City to build something physical to embody his mother and her impacts.
“Here behind us, we have that,” Langdon said. “We have this facility and she served as the engine for this. It was a recognition, it was an inflection point in this city’s history to recognize that we could do things better. It needed raw leadership. It required tough decisions.”
Operated by Sea Mar Community Health Centers, the facility is designed around a “no wrong door” policy, accepting walk-ins and emergency responder drop-offs regardless of a person’s insurance status or ability to pay.
The center features a 16-recliner observation unit meant for short-term crisis stabilization stays of up to 23 hours and 59 minutes, with a capacity for up to 35 people. Later this year, the center will open a 16-bed unit for longer residential stays.
Patients entering the center have immediate access to psychiatric assessments, substance use disorder professionals, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and peer support. Rather than returning patients to the streets after their immediate crisis is resolved, Sea Mar aims to connect them with longitudinal, community-based care.
“Everything here is meant to calm. Everything here is meant to improve,” Terron Sutton, a Sea Mar behavioral health technician said while showcasing the short-term observation facility.
It’s been a long journey to opening the center’s doors. While construction has been complete and the building ready to host people for over a year, operations were significantly delayed after the original operator, RI International, withdrew from the project.
The withdrawal stemmed from a critical oversight in the facility’s funding model. Under draft rules from the Washington State Health Care Authority, the non-Medicaid population – which was expected to make up 50% of the center’s patients – was not going to be covered by state funds. To operate the facility under those conditions, RI International indicated they would need an annual $10 million guarantee to cover the gap.
The City then went back to the drawing board to find a new operator, eventually selecting Sea Mar in late 2025.
Despite the operational limbo and funding delays, local leaders expressed relief that the turbulent period ultimately resulted in a strong partnership capable of serving the region’s most vulnerable.
“This project has faced its shared challenges over the years. There have been funding hurdles, provider transitions that we’ve heard about today, and moments when progress seemed uncertain,” JanRose Ottaway Martin, executive director of the North Sound Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization (BH-ASO), said at the ceremony. BH-ASO stepped in to help the City with the process of finding a new provider after the previous one withdrew.
“Through persistence, collaboration and a shared commitment to serving our neighbors, we are finally here,” she said.
As the center prepares to welcome its first patients in the coming weeks, local leaders acknowledge that the daily challenges of operating the 23-hour facility are just beginning.
“No one knows what’s going to happen with this place,” said Dr. Shannon Boustad, a family doctor with Sea Mar for 15 years. “This is an evolving conversation. This is an evolving story that we are going to make together, and I would just say that from here some of the greatest challenges are going to be continuing and developing this conversation.”
But overall, officials were optimistic about the center’s future and ability to bring change.
“Thank you for believing that people are more than their worst moments,” Rep. Davis told the crowd, summarizing the facility’s core mission. “When we provide people access to timely, quality behavioral health care, they do in fact recover.”
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— Contact Ashley at [email protected].
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