SEATTLE — A 37-year-old Seattle man was charged Thursday with 5 counts of assault within the random stabbings of 5 individuals in broad daylight final week, in response to prosecutors.
Roland Jerome Lee is accused of stabbing 5 individuals as they stood on the sidewalk in a roughly four-block space in Seattle’s Chinatown-Worldwide District. He faces 4 first-degree assault fees and one depend of fourth-degree assault.
4 of the victims have been taken to Harborview Medical Heart in crucial situation and one sufferer was handled on the scene and launched. One of many 4 male sufferers stays at Harborview and is in secure situation, hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg mentioned Thursday.
Lee is being held on a $2 million bail. He’s scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 27, mentioned King County Prosecuting Legal professional’s Workplace spokesperson Casey McNerthney.
Will Casey, spokesperson for the King county Division of Public Protection, mentioned they don’t have any remark in regards to the case at this stage.
Seattle police imagine Lee was additionally concerned in at the very least 4 different stabbings in the identical space the day earlier than the 5 assaults. He match the descriptions of the suspect and the assaults have been additionally random, like Friday’s assaults.
Lee has a felony historical past in Washington state that features 9 felony convictions for automobile thefts, possession of stolen property, theft and tried housebreaking, in response to the possible trigger report.
Police have been referred to as at about 2 p.m. final Friday on stories that 4 individuals had been stabbed in Chinatown. One other sufferer was discovered a couple of block away, the possible trigger assertion mentioned.
One witness instructed police that he noticed the suspect stroll up behind a person and stab him within the again. That man was hospitalized with 4 stab wounds. The witness mentioned he adopted the suspect as he walked up the road after which stabbed three individuals as they stood on a nook.
Police mentioned Lee additionally stabbed one other man earlier than placing the group of three. Video reveals him strolling behind an individual and stabbing him within the again. He fell to the bottom with the knife nonetheless lodged in his again, police mentioned.
Police took Lee into custody with what gave the impression to be blood on his fingers and sneakers, police mentioned. They mentioned they situated two knives close by.
“This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing random assaults,” Deputy Chief Eric Barden mentioned on the scene final week.