Five people were stabbed in an apparently random attack in Seattle on Friday, and police are investigating whether the suspect may have stabbed five other people since Thursday morning.
Two people were in critical condition after the attack that occurred around 2 p.m. in the city’s Chinatown-International District, police and a spokesperson for Harborview Medical Center said Friday.
Five other people were also stabbed in separate incidents in the same area since Thursday morning. The attacks are similar in randomness and the description of the assailant, Seattle police Deputy Chief Eric Barden said.
“It’s certainly plausible that the suspect involved in today’s stabbing is the same suspect involved with the previous five incidents, but the investigation is ongoing,” Barden said.
The suspect, who police said they were working to identify Friday, was arrested just up the hill from where the attacks occurred, Barden said. He will be booked on an investigation of assault, police said.
There was a weapon found near him, and a knife was also left in one of the victims that was taken to the hospital.
Four people had been hospitalized in critical condition following Friday’s stabbings, but by the evening two were critical, one was in serious condition and one was satisfactory, a hospital spokesperson said. A fifth stabbing victim was treated at the scene, police said.
In the 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, Barden said.
“The arbitrary nature of these assaults makes it likely that these are similar,” Barden said.
One of the five earlier stabbings involved a robbery in which a cell phone was taken, but the others were random, he said. None of the victims have died.
Four of the five earlier attacks happened Thursday, police said. In addition to the woman, a 32-year-old man was stabbed around 12:19 p.m., a 37-year-old man was stabbed around 8 p.m., and a 60-year-old man was stabbed around 8:39 p.m. by a person who opened his 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.
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