Officers arrested a 32-year-old woman late Tuesday evening on Capitol Hill after she attacked an apartment building security guard, slashing him with a machete.
Around 11:20 PM, the 50-year-old security guard was patrolling near the 1600 block of 12th Avenue, near the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, when a 32-year-old woman began yelling insults at him from a vehicle.
According to a witness, the suspect then got out of her vehicle while carrying a Nerf Blaster, approached the guard and asked if he was an officer. The guard was reportedly wearing a vest with the word “officer” printed on the front and back. When the victim walked away, the suspect continued shouting insults at him. During the incident, the woman returned to her vehicle, retrieved a foot-long machete and began walking toward the guard and a witness.
The guard and a witness tried to quickly enter the lobby of an apartment building in the 1600 block of 12th Avenue to get away from the suspect.
The guard attempted to pull the building’s door shut, as the suspect fought to try and pull it open. During the struggle, the suspect reportedly slashed the guard on the forearm, leaving two five-inch cuts.
The suspect then returned to her vehicle and left the scene.
At the same time the guard was struggling with the suspect, a group of protesters down the block had dumped garbage and set fire to a flag on the SPD East Precinct fence line.
Members of the protest group initially tended to the guard’s wounds before police took over, placed a tourniquet on the man and called for Seattle Fire medics. The victim was later transported to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
A short time later, officers found the suspect at a gas station on Broadway, where she had changed her clothing. Officers booked her into the King County Jail for assault.