While responding to a stabbing Downtown Tuesday afternoon, police witnessed a carjacking, leading to a pursuit into the East Precinct and the arrest of the carjacking suspect.
At 2:23 p.m., a Downtown ambassador at 3rd Avenue and Union Street was flagged down by a man who said he’d been stabbed. The ambassador called 911 as the victim ran off in pursuit of the suspect. Police responded to the area and began searching for the stabbing victim and the suspect.
During the area check, an officer near 3rd Avenue and Pine Street saw two men running toward a parked black Lexus – one of them jumped in the driver seat and the other dove into the front passenger seat through the open passenger window. The car sped off with the passenger’s legs still hanging out the open window.
Believing the two men to possibly be the stabbing victim and suspect, officers signaled for the driver to pull over, but he refused to stop. He drove through an alley and then turned eastbound on Pike Street. The driver was speeding and running red lights, and he sideswiped another car. As police pursued the Lexus up Pike Street, officers could see the driver and passenger fighting and hear the horn consistently honking.
The driver of the Lexus eventually crashed into a building in the 1100 block of Pike Street. Officers removed both occupants from the vehicle and learned the passenger was the owner of the car.
The owner explained the following: he is a rideshare driver and he was picking up a customer near 3rd Avenue and Pine Street. When he got out of the car to help his customer load some luggage, the suspect jumped into the driver’s seat. The car owner jumped through the passenger window and tried to stop the suspect from stealing his car. As the suspect drove, he repeatedly assaulted the car owner with his elbow and refused to let him out of the vehicle. However, the victim confirmed the suspect had not stabbed him or attempted to stab him.
Police arrested the 35-year-old suspect at the scene. He was transported to the hospital by private ambulance for possible minor injuries, and officers will book him into King County Jail for robbery when he is released.
Meanwhile, other officers found the actual stabbing victim at 4th Avenue and Pike Street. Seattle Fire Department medics treated him at the scene for apparently non-life-threatening wounds and recommended he go to the hospital, but he refused.
The stabbing victim told officers he had been at 4th Avenue and Pike Street about to use narcotics, when the suspect had come up to him and grabbed the narcotics out of his hands. The victim began chasing the suspect to get back his drugs, when suddenly the suspect turned around and stabbed him twice.
Police recovered video evidence related to this incident and will continue to investigate.
At this time, the carjacking and the stabbing/robbery appear to be unrelated.