Police are investigating after a man was stabbed and shots were fired in the Chinatown-International District on Monday morning.
At 10:02 a.m., multiple 911 callers reported a man was shooting a rifle near 13th Avenue South and South Lane Street. When police arrived the shooter had fled, but officers found a male victim with stab wounds to the arm and torso. Officers began first aid and then transferred care to Seattle Fire Department medics when they arrived. Medics transported the 45-year-old man to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition.
Through information from witnesses, officers learned the following:
The stabbing victim lives with a woman in a tent in an encampment near 13th Avenue South and South Lane Street. The two of them have not been getting along with another encampment resident – the suspect in the stabbing – described as a Hispanic female in her 20s, wearing a teal hat, camouflage jacket and dark leggings. Today, the female suspect stabbed the victim and then fled up the Lane Street stairs leading to 12th Avenue South.
After the stabbing, someone retrieved a rifle from the victim’s tent. A Black male with dreadlocks was seen firing the gun up the stairs after the suspect. Witnesses also reported seeing the gun put back into the victim’s tent, and the shooter fleeing.
The 39-year-old woman who resides with the stabbing victim would not allow police to search the tent for weapons, and she repeatedly tried to go in the tent herself. When officers attempted to arrest the woman for obstruction, she bit an officer on the leg and scratched another officer – drawing blood on both. She was subsequently placed under arrest for third-degree assault and was booked into King County Jail. The officer who was bitten was treated at HMC for his injuries, and the second officer was treated at the scene by SFD.
Police served a warrant on the tent inhabited by the stabbing victim and the biting suspect, and recovered three rifles and multiple rounds of ammunition.
As police began to leave the scene, one of the first responding officers who had provided first aid to the stabbing victim discovered her medic kit had been stolen. In-car video revealed that the same man who had fired the rifle had also stolen the medic kit from where it was placed near a patrol vehicle. The kit contained hundreds of dollars’ worth of medical supplies and police equipment.
Officers searched the area for the stabbing suspect and the shooting/theft suspect, but neither was found.
Police continue to investigate this incident. Anyone with information about the stabbing, shooting, or theft should call the Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.