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.
Four people were in critical condition after the attack near 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street, police and a spokesperson for Harborview Medical Center said Friday.
A fifth victim was stabbed but was treated and released at the scene, Seattle police Deputy Chief Eric Barden said.
There have also been five other people stabbed in separate incidents in that same area since Thursday morning. The attacks are similar in randomness and the description of the assailant, 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 was not identified at a news conference Friday, was arrested just up the hill from where the attacks occurred, Barden 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.
In the other stabbings, a woman was stabbed at 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.
