Stabbing suspect in critical condition after being shot by Seattle Police

A 39-year-old man is in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center after being shot by Seattle Police officers Tuesday morning. The man is a suspect in a stabbing incident near the intersection of Second Avenue and Cherry Street in downtown Seattle.

Shortly before 8 a.m., police said they responded to an emergency call of a stabbing and found a victim with a stab wound to their neck.

Witnesses told police that the stabbing suspect was several blocks away near First Avenue and Spring Street, said Assistant Chief Todd Kibbee in a statement delivered to media. Officers made contact with the man and police fired shortly after.

Police haven’t released information on how many officers fired or what precipitated the shooting. Kibbee did share, however, that a knife was recovered at the scene.

It remains unclear whether the man was holding or near the knife at the time of the shooting.

The Seattle Police Department’s Force Investigation Team was on scene Tuesday, and will be leading the investigation into what occurred, Kibbee said. Department policy calls for the release of video footage related to officer involved shootings within 72 hours after the shooting occurred.

Since 2004, Seattle Police officers have killed at least 16 people who were reportedly holding a knife or edged weapon, according to previous KUOW reporting

In February 2021, police fatally shot Derek Hayden, a 44-year-old man who was captured in police body camera footage holding a knife and saying, “Please kill me.”

In 2017, police shot Charleena Lyles, a 30-year-old pregnant mother of four, after officers said she confronted them with a knife.

In 2010, John T. Williams, a partially deaf woodcarver of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, was crossing Howell Street downtown with his carving knife. A patrol officer saw Williams and his knife, yelled at him to stop, and then shot and killed him. The officer involved in that shooting resigned nearly six months later.

In an interview last fall, Brian Maxey, chief operating officer for Seattle Police, said the department has focused on de-escalation. It’s unknown which, if any, de-escalation tactics were used in Tuesday's shooting.