Former Seattle library worker arrested after trafficking at least two young girls into prostitution

Editor's note: Following the publishing of this article, the King County Library System responded to LET's request for comment. The article and title have been updated to reflect their statements, specifically their assertion that Wimana has not been a library system employee since 2021. This information contradicts Mr. Wimana's LinkedIn profile which reflects his role as a Library Page Fellow as ongoing since 2016.

--


SEATTLE, WA - A former employee of the King County Library System (KCLS) in Seattle, WA, Ezra Wimana, 25, was placed under arrest on February 7 by Bellevue Police for the alleged sex trafficking of two Oregon girls aged 11 and 15 whom he met online.

According to a release issued by the Bellevue Police Department Human Trafficking Unit (HTU), Detectives arrested Wimana after they received a request for assistance from a police department in eastern Oregon. The authorities in Oregon identified the two missing girls and stated they were suspected victims of human trafficking.

The investigation led to the successful recovery of the young girls, along with the arrest of Wimana. Both girls have subsequently been returned to their parents.

The statement laid out the troubling findings of the investigation, reading, "The investigation revealed that the juveniles fell prey to the trafficking scheme after connecting with the suspect Wimana on Instagram and Snapchat."

After ensnaring the girls via the popular social media applications, "Wimana allegedly transported the minors over 300 miles from eastern Oregon to Washington, where they were subjected to exploitation, including substance abuse, sexual exploitation and sexual assault," the department said.

"Wimana allegedly forced the young victims to attempt to engage in prostitution along Aurora Avenue in Seattle, and later abandoned the victims on the side of the road when he was dissatisfied with their performance."
 

Bellevue Police Assistant Chief Andrew Popochock told King5News, "The intent was that these girls were going to be engaging in prostitution. Luckily, we were able to return these girls to their families. that's not always the case in these types of sort of instances."

The Chief warned, "Social media is a way that people that are involved in activities reach vulnerable individuals. You can promise many things. They don't have the life experience sometimes to recognize those traps before they walk into it."

Although the girls were recovered quickly, Popochock noted, "In 48 hours, many things can happen. In minutes, many things can happen and in the circumstance, bad things happened. When you leave a location, you leave home, you leave that safe space that you're in, and you get into a car, you don't know where you're going, and what's going to happen."

The Post Millennial's editor-at-large Andy Ngô reportedly located Wimana and identified him as a library employee via LinkedIn. The profile showed further that he had been a Library Page fellow with King County since 2016, as well as an Assistant Manager for Pizza Hut since 2018, and even worked as a SeaTac area Emergency Medical Technician for ten months.

The release noted that after appearing before a judge Wednesday, Wimana faces charges of two counts of Trafficking in the Second Degree, two counts of Promoting Commercial Sexual Abuse of a Minor, and one count of Rape of a Child in the 3rd degree. He's being held on $500,000 bail.

KCLS was contacted for comment by LET but did not originally respond by the time of publishing.

After the fact, the organization responded with the following statement: 

"The King County Library System is disturbed and saddened by the breaking news stories we hear about child trafficking in our community. We are monitoring the situation and have reached out to Bellevue police to confirm the identity of the person arrested. We have not received any information from any law enforcement agency to indicate that a current or former employee of ours has been arrested and, as a result, cannot comment on that aspect of the matter.

"We can confirm that the person named in the article has not been employed with King County Library System since 2021. KCLS is committed to providing a safe environment for all our employees and patrons. We conduct background checks on all our employees and train them to address inappropriate conduct we observe in our libraries. KCLS libraries are designated as a Safe Place."