$2M bail set for ‘unprovoked’ mass stabbing suspect in Seattle

A King County District Court judge set bail at $2 million Saturday for a man accused of nine unprovoked stabbings in the Chinatown International District.

Around 2 p.m. Friday, a man in a black sweatshirt with white writing stabbed five people on South Jackson Street between 10th Avenue South and 12th Avenue South, according to witnesses and security footage recovered by police. A witness reported seeing the man running and then “calmly” walking between random targets, according to a probable cause document.

Officers said they took the man into custody after a short chase.

Police believe the man, 37, is associated with at least four other stabbings between early Thursday and Friday. The Seattle Times does not name suspects before they have been charged by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

During the suspect’s first appearance Saturday at the King County Jail, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Ian Michaels-Slettvet described the suspect’s criminal history as “extreme,” with nine felony convictions in the past 10 years.

“These attacks were random. They were unprovoked. They occurred in broad daylight,” he said of the Friday afternoon stabbings.

The judge granted a motion from King County public defense attorney Emma Benjamin to limit media from filming the suspect’s face, arguing that “identity is a central issue” in the case.

Speaking for the defendant, Benjamin said the man lives with his uncle in Federal Way, does landscaping work and was born and raised in Seattle.

“I want to remind the court that he is presumed innocent,” Benjamin said.

King County District Court Judge Michelle Gehlsen only heard evidence on five counts Saturday, finding probable cause that the suspect committed five counts of first-degree assault. Citing a “substantial likelihood” that “the suspect could commit a violent crime in the community,” Gehlsen set bail at $2 million.

The injuries from the Friday afternoon stabbings ranged from minor cuts to severe knife wounds. Four men were taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition, according to police. As of Saturday afternoon, the conditions of the men had been updated: three to serious and the other to satisfactory condition.

A witness interviewed at the scene reported the assailant walked up behind a man and stabbed him in the back around 1:57 p.m., according to probable cause documents. The witness then followed the suspect and saw him stab three more people a block away. One person had a cut on his nose, while another was stabbed in the neck, according to documents.

Video also showed the suspect stabbing another person beforehand, who was taken to the hospital with a knife still in his back, according to documents.

After the stabbings, witnesses reported they saw the suspect discard objects. Officers recovered two knives, according to documents. Police arrested the suspect and found what appeared to be blood on his hands.

Police reported a 10th stabbing in the neighborhood late Thursday, under an Interstate 5 overpass, appeared to be unrelated.

The area around South Jackson Street and 12th Avenue South has long raised safety concerns as a hot spot for drug dealing and associated violence. The stabbings took place in what the Seattle City Council designated as a “Stay Out of Drug Area” in September in an attempt to ban people accused or convicted of lower-level crimes.

However, on Friday, Seattle police Deputy Chief Eric Barden described the stabbings as “an aberration that is not at all the norm.”

Barden also said police have begun to increase their presence in the neighborhood and are dedicating “significant efforts to clean it up,” similar to the city’s downtown reactivation plan.