Police arrested a man for robbery and malicious harassment over the weekend after he robbed a Beacon Hill convenience store at gunpoint, and attacked two people on a street in SODO hours later.
On Saturday, April 9th at approximately 4:45 am, a male suspect entered a gas station located in the 2400 block of Beacon Avenue South and held up the clerk at gunpoint. During the robbery, the suspect asked the clerk about his religion before fleeing the scene.
Police searched the neighborhood for the man but were unable to locate him. However, police did recover photos of the man from the convenience store and distributed the images to patrol officers.
At approximately noon that day, an officer was dispatched to a call at 4th Avenue South and South Holgate Street, where a man reportedly grabbed a purse from a woman in a wheelchair. The officer arrived and saw the suspect from the convenience store robbery, along with an injured 61-year-old woman in a wheelchair and a 32-year-old man.
Officers called for Seattle Fire to treat the injured woman at the scene. The male victim declined medical aid.
The 61-year-old victim told officers she had been at 4th Avenue South and Edgar Martinez Drive South when the suspect approached her and asked for a cigarette. The man then struck the victim in the face and threatened to kill her before he fled. The victim followed the suspect to 4th and Holgate where he reportedly punched another man, a 32-year-old, at a bus stop and made racially-charged threats.
When officers took the suspect into custody, he made several statements regarding religion, and claimed to be part of a terrorist group. Police booked him into the King County Jail and turned the two cases over to robbery detectives for investigation.