Man brutally beaten, stabbed by group on Capitol Hill

SEATTLE — Quick Facts:

• Victim hit with skateboard, cut with bottle
• Attackers were three men and two women
• Victim also stabbed in back

Police are searching for three men and two women who beat and stabbed a man on Capitol Hill Thursday morning.

Investigators said the 61-year-old victim is from Honolulu and came to Seattle to watch his son perform in a band at a Capitol Hill bar. Police said he was walking in the 900 block of East Pike Street when two men approached him and exchanged words.

The two men then walked away, and the victim followed, heading west to the southeast corner of Broadway and East Pike Street.

One man and two women then joined the two men and surrounded the victim.

One of the men, described as white, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and carrying a skateboard, hit the man across the head with the skateboard. A second person was reported to have pulled a knife and stabbed the victim in the back.

According to witnesses, a third person hit the victim on the left side of his head with a bottle, causing a severe cut. The group then knocked the victim to the ground and punched and kicked him before fleeing east on East Pike Street.

Officers searched for the attackers but came up empty.

Medics transported the 61-year-old to Harborview with a single stab wound to the lower back and cuts to the left side of his head. He was released later on Thursday.

Police are working to identify the five attackers, described by witnesses as:

• A white man in his 20s, 6 foot 3 inches tall, 200 pounds with long blonde hair who was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and carrying a skateboard.
• A white man in his 20s, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a thin build, who was possibly wearing a white shirt and black pants. This man had a knife.
• A white woman in her 20s, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 150 pounds, with a stocky build, dark hair and wearing black pants and black shoes.
• The three attackers were with another white woman and a white man, who were both in their 20s.

KIRO 7 looked up online police reports from the last three weeks, within a three-block radius of Broadway and East Pike Street.

We found 15 incidents of threats, robberies or assaults, including the one Thursday morning.

“I know that the East Precinct, they are aware. They’re working with businesses in that area on the problems,” said Det. Renee Witt, a spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department.

She added that during warmer weather, precinct captains will put more resources in hot spots where large crowds gather.

Business owners in the area like Jennifer Dietrich have not seen enough police patrols.

Dietrich, who owns Dr. Jen’s House of Beauty, started a group called Outwatch. The group of volunteers plans to patrol the streets of Capitol Hill from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, starting in a couple of weeks.

Dietrich said the violence has gotten worse. Her volunteers are training in self-defense and in how to diffuse situations without violence.

“The late shift, we’re going to be picking up performers and bar staff, from the different venues and taking them home or wherever they need to go,” Dietrich said.

She said she even has to think twice whether a trip to the grocery store is too dangerous.

“That just seems wrong to me somehow. I should not have to have those conversations with myself,” she said.

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