Man who claims he wants to build a cabin, mine for gold at Seattle park arrested again

SEATTLE — For the third time, a man who claims he has permission to build a cabin and plans to mine for gold in a Seattle city park has been arrested.

Police took Steven Irwin, 41, into custody at his encampment in the park on Friday, according to a Seattle police report.

The city of Seattle banned Irwin from all parks for one year after he used an excavator to tear up a hillside in October and then ripped out vegetation to build a cabin.

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Irwin came to Seattle from Mississippi several years ago. His mother, Tanya Irwin, reached out to KOMO News after seeing coverage of her son’s arrest for damaging the park.

“He will not let us help him, and that’s what he needs. It just got to the place where we said ‘no more.' If he could get somewhere and get himself cleaned out and come to his senses, then maybe there is hope,” Tanya Irwin said.

Tanya Irwin indicated she would like to see her son be required to do drug rehab and receive mental health treatment.

“He needs to get to a place where he can get the drugs out of his system,” she said.

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Volunteer group 'We Heart Seattle' led a clean-up at Irwin's encampment over the weekend.

There’s probably about 2,000 pounds of trash," said Andrea Suarez, the director of We Heart Seattle. "It’s inhumane for Steve to continue to come out here into the woods because he has untreated mental illness. That is the message here. We keep letting him come back here, and this is the third time. I hope he can get discharged and go somewhere where he can get psychiatric treatment.

Irwin is in the King County Jail on multiple charges, including felony malicious mischief, possession of a stolen vehicle, criminal trespass, obstructing a police officer, and vehicle theft. A judge set his bail at $50,000.