SEATTLE — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.
Serious questions are being raised after a 26-year-old man, accused of attempting to push a stranger in front of an approaching light rail at Sound Transit’s Northgate station last week, was once deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for allegedly stabbing his sister in 2019, then released from a state mental hospital after that stabbing case was dismissed.
Elisio Melendez is now charged with attempted murder. An image captured from surveillance video of the Northgate incident shows the victim holding a cell phone with a messenger bag slung around his shoulders, standing on a platform facing the tracks. As the train approaches the victim from the right, Melendez’s arms appear to be extended, his hand is on the victim’s back, and his legs are leaning forward.
According to charging documents, the victim told investigators he felt a push from behind as the train was arriving at the station, but he was able to catch himself before falling. Deputies added the victim told them Melendez “pushed him again, but had no expression on his face while doing this and did not attempt to grab anything from him.” The victim told deputies he immediately began yelling at Melendez to get security’s attention and also chased after him.
Deputies said the suspect ran away, and they later found him at a nearby mental health home, where they arrested him. Investigators said clothing matching what the suspect wore during the incident was recovered from his room.
Seattle light rail push suspect has history of mental health, criminal issues
In charging documents, deputies said, after reading Melendez his Miranda Rights, they showed surveillance video of the alleged incident to him and, they claim, Melendez first told them the suspect in the video could have been someone who took his clothes that maybe looked like him, then said,”… maybe that was my twin that I don’t have.”
Court records show, in 2019, prosecutors charged Melendez with second-degree assault for stabbing his sister in the stomach with a knife. However, the domestic violence charge was later dismissed in February 2021 after Melendez was found to be not competent to stand trial following three periods of competency restoration treatment.
“Mr. Melendez went through multiple periods of court-ordered competency restoration — the maximum allowable as set by state lawmakers under state law — and was ultimately found not competent to stand trial and not restorable,” King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Douglas Wagoner said in an email to KIRO Newsradio. “On February 10, 2021, the court dismissed the case due to the defendant being not competent to stand trial and not restorable and ordered the defendant to be civilly committed at Western State Hospital under DSHS supervision.”
Melendez remained at Western State until January 2022, according to prosecutors, when the state determined he had improved enough to be released to a less restrictive alternative. Wagoner explained that, since there was no legal way for prosecutors to proceed with a criminal case, Melendez was ultimately released.
Melendez remains in the King County Jail on $750,000 bail. He’s scheduled to be arraigned in King County Superior Court on March 31.
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