Bizarre assault call in Lake City, suspect in custody

On May 15th, at approximately 10:37 pm, North Precinct officers responded to a “man with a knife” call near the intersection of NE 120th Street and Lake City Way NE.  Witnesses stated that a man was holding a knife as he was standing over another man lying in the street.  The suspect was described as a white male in his 20’s, wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans.

Officers arrived quickly and saw a man matching the description holding a large screwdriver in his right hand standing over another man.  The suspect’s right hand was raised above his head.  Officers immediately ordered the suspect to drop the weapon and the suspect complied.  He then dropped to the ground and officers were able to handcuff him.  The suspect was transferred to a patrol car and the screwdriver was recovered.  Officers then were able to interview the victim.

The 25 year old male victim told officers that he needed medical attention because he had been stabbed and bitten repeatedly by the suspect.  He had visible cuts to his face, arms and hands which were still bleeding.  Officers provided first aid by bandaging the victim’s head, which was bleeding, while they waited for the Seattle Fire Department to arrive. 

The victim told officers that the suspect had come over to the victim’s  residence in the 11800 Block of 31st Place NE that evening to confront the victim because the victim had lied to the suspect about something.   The argument between the two quickly turned into a physical fight.  Also present during this fight was the victim’s 20 year old girlfriend.  At some point during the fight, the suspect grabbed a large screwdriver and began to threaten both the victim and his girlfriend.  It was at this point that things turned weird.  The suspect forced both the victim and his girlfriend to strip naked to “check for weapons.”  The suspect told the girlfriend that if she picked up the phone or left it “would not go well for her.”  Because of that, the female felt she was not free to leave.  Afterward, he forced them to go downstairs and change into different clothes.  The suspect demanded that the girlfriend would then drive them all to a hospital where they would claim they were assaulted by another person.  As the victims and suspect were walking out of the residence toward a car, the male victim ran toward Lake City Way NE, chased by the suspect. Several witnesses on Lake City Way NE heard the disturbance and saw the suspect stabbing the victim with the screwdriver in the street. The girlfriend then ran the other direction and called 911. 

The male victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center.  While he did not suffer life-threatening injuries, he did sustain multiple lacerations to his head, and bite marks to his back, shoulder, and arm.  The female was not injured during the incident.  The suspect, a 24 year old male, was later booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Assault and Investigation of Unlawful Imprisonment. The suspect declined to provide officers any explanation for his actions.  Detectives will handle the follow up investigation.