Five people were stabbed in an apparently random attack in Seattle on Friday, and police have been investigating the suspect who may have stabbed five others since Thursday morning.
Police and Harborview Medical Center spokespeople said Friday that two people were left in critical condition after the attack, which occurred around 2 p.m. in the city’s Chinatown International District.
Five other people have been stabbed in separate incidents in the same area since Thursday morning. Seattle Deputy Police Chief Eric Burden said the latest attack was similar in its randomness and description of the perpetrator.
“While it is certainly possible that the suspect involved in today’s stabbing is the same suspect involved in the previous five incidents, the investigation is ongoing,” Baden said.
Baden said the suspect, who police said Friday they were working on identifying, was arrested just up the hill from the scene of the attack. Police said he will be investigated for assault.
The murder weapon was found nearby, and one of the victims who was taken to the hospital also had a knife left behind.
A hospital spokesperson said four people were hospitalized in critical condition after Friday’s stabbing, but by evening two were in critical condition, one in critical condition and one in fair condition. A fifth stabbing victim was treated at the scene, police said.
In other stabbings, a 52-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, and four other people were stabbed in separate attacks between then and Friday’s mass stabbing, Baden said. .
“Given the arbitrary nature of these assaults, it is likely that these assaults are similar,” Baden said.
Of the five stabbings to date, one was a robbery where someone stole a cell phone, but the rest were said to have been carried out indiscriminately. None of the victims died.
Police said four of the five attacks so far occurred on Thursday. In addition to the woman, a 32-year-old man was stabbed at around 12:19 p.m., a 37-year-old man at around 8 p.m., and a 60-year-old man at around 8:39 p.m. The person who opened the car door and tried to stab him in the chest.
A 53-year-old man was also stabbed in the neck around 1 a.m. Friday, police said.
