Seattle mayor released from hospital after attack

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Mayor Paul Schell was released from the hospital Sunday, one day after he was assaulted with a megaphone allegedly brandished by a heckler at a community event in Seattle, Washington.

Wearing sunglasses to hide his black eye, Schell walked out of Seattle's Harborview Medical Center on Sunday morning, holding hands with his wife.

"I feel good," he told reporters. "It hurts a little bit, but I intend to go to work tomorrow."

Schell said he felt the attack was an "isolated incident," and said it should not "get in the way of making progress."

The assault occurred Saturday, soon after Schell spoke at a community celebration in the city's Central District.

A man in the crowd heckled Schell throughout his speech, shouting about racial profiling and other racial issues. After the mayor wrapped up his remarks, the man approached Schell in the crowd and hit him in the face with the metal megaphone, according to police.

Schell, 63, said he suffered broken bones on the right side of his face.

The suspect was identified by police as James Garrett, 55. Police said Garrett was angry that the festival was being held in the same neighborhood where a black suspect was shot and killed by a white police officer last month.

Garrett, an activist and fringe mayoral candidate, was sentenced to 90 days in jail in 1988 for grabbing a gun from a University of Washington police sergeant and pointing it at the officer's head during a demonstration, according to The Associated Press. More recently, the AP reported, he has pressed the city to turn an abandoned school in the Central District into an African-American heritage museum.

Schell said he would press charges against Garrett, but said the incident would not affect his approach to the job.

The mayor, who is white, rejected the suggestion the attack was a symptom of widespread racial tensions in the city and noted that African-American leaders had visited him in the hospital.

Schell is running for re-election as his first term as mayor comes to a close. The primary election is in September, followed by the general election in November.