Slain suspect in attack had served time for fire

SEATTLE – A man who was shot to death after he reportedly attacked a stranger in the downtown retail core once served time in prison for setting fire to his mother’s day-care center, records show.

Daniel Culotti, 25, was identified through fingerprint records after the shooting Saturday at Westlake Plaza.

The 52-year-old man who shot him had a concealed weapons permit and has not been arrested or identified. Police have said he may have fired in self-defense, and a decision on whether to file charges is up to the King County prosecutor’s office once the investigation is finished.

Witnesses told police the older man did nothing to provoke the attack in which he was punched and kicked until he fell to the sidewalk, at which point he drew a .357-caliber Ruger revolver and fired one shot.

Judging by witness accounts, the older man “was not winning the fight” – the other man “just starts attacking him, he’s on the ground and a shot is fired,” Officer Debra Brown said. “It happened pretty fast. Probably by the time anybody thought to intervene, it was already over.”

The older man was questioned and released, and his gun was kept by police as evidence, Brown said.

Records show Culotti attacked his mother, Melinda Culotti, at the family’s former residence near the Woodland Park Zoo in July 2001, then returned, poured gasoline on the floor of the house and set it on fire. He pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and was sentenced to nearly two years in prison.

Jail records also show he was arrested three times this year for violating the conditions of his release.

His mother, who now lives in upstate New York, said she learned of her son’s death Monday and declined to comment to the Seattle Times.