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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘God told me he was a lizard’: Seattle ‘Proud Boy’ accused of killing his brother with a sword

A Facebook profile photo of Buckey Wolfe, posted in October 2018. (Facebook)
By Sara Jean Green Seattle Times

A Seattle man who prosecutors say may be mentally ill was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder, accused of killing his brother with a four-foot-long sword. Buckey Wolfe’s social media accounts suggest he was a member of “Proud Boys,” a group the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a hate group, Huffington Post reported. However, Proud Boys denied he was ever a member despite a photo of him at a meeting of the Seattle chapter.

Wolfe, 26, was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail during his first court appearance Monday, but prosecutors have since requested that Wolfe be held without bail given the extreme danger he poses to the community, jail and court records show. It was not clear Tuesday when a judge would rule on the state’s request.

“The defendant’s actions – jamming the tang end of a four-foot long sharpened metal-bladed sword-like instrument completely through the victim’s head and killing him – demonstrate the danger he poses,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O’Toole wrote in charging papers. “Moreover, (the) defendant appears to be severely mentally ill.”

Killed was James Wolfe, say charging papers, which do not include his age. As of Tuesday, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office had not publicly identified James Wolfe or issued a ruling on his cause and manner of death.

Buckey Wolfe called 911 at 6:40 p.m. on Sunday and told a dispatcher he’d killed his brother because he thought his brother was a lizard, the charges say. He continued to ramble, saying “Kill me, kill me, I can’t live in this reality,” and “God told me he was a lizard,” according to charging papers. Wolfe was able to provide his home address, located in the 4100 block of Phinney Avenue North, where Seattle police found James Wolfe dead, the charges say.

The charges say Buckey Wolfe lived in a mother-in-law apartment on the property while his brother and father lived in the main house.

Buckey Wolfe was arrested in Fremont a short time after calling 911, less than a mile north of the family home, according to the charges. During an interview with police, Wolfe – who claimed to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia – told homicide detectives “that their eyes and mouths were changing and asked if they could see lizards in the room,” O’Toole wrote in charging papers.

Police obtained video footage from a camera set up outside the mother-in-law apartment, which showed the brothers walking peacefully together and later, their father handing food to Buckey Wolfe, the charges say. There’s no further activity recorded on the camera until Buckey Wolfe is seen running out of the apartment, the charges say.

“No other person is seen entering or exiting the apartment until Seattle Police officers arrived and found James Wolfe deceased inside the apartment,” according to the charges.