Like the title reads, I believe I saw the stabber of the 19 year old UW girl tonight May 12th at 8:56 pm on 20th Ave NE and maybe 50th street, heading southbound towards UW. He was walking across the street from me. He was around 5’6-5’9 (hard to tell), a black male in his mid twenties, he had sagging blue jeans, a button up shirt, and a bluish? puffer vest. He was acting erratically and playing some music; I suspect he is homeless. The clothing and appearance description both are on point.
I was on my way home from playing basketball on UW’s North campus courts and I saw him walking and playing music. He was talking to himself and immediately his description clicked for me as the same as I saw on the news. Now this is where the frustrating police bureaucracy comes into play.
As soon as I saw him and was a safe enough distance from him, I called 911. They directed me to the homicide tip line; I wrote the phone number down and immediately called. The phone rang for 30 seconds and then it said something along the lines of “no one is available to take your call right now, please leave a vm.” I left a vm of his description and the location, then I called UWPD. They directed me to the SPD non-emergency line. I waited for about 10 minutes AS HE IS STILL WALKING AWAY and then finally got on call with an agent. They told me what the last person told me “Let me give you the number to the homicide tip line, this is just how they want us to do it.” Frustrated at this point I told them “this is what the last person told me but I was hoping police could be dispatched now, he is walking away as we speak and the line is unavailable right now.” They simply responded “Sorry, this is just how they want us to do it, they will review it when they can.”
UGHHH, the bureaucracy of the local police is ridiculous. THERE IS A KILLER WALKING BY ME AND WE CANNOT EVEN DISPATCH AN OFFICER ??!!! I reported my frustrations with this system to a couple local news stations in the hopes they can put pressure on the police, but my hope runs pretty dry.
Not to mention, it is likely that this stabbing was an indirect cause of the local government trying to cover its ass for the World Cup. Living in U-district, anyone can tell you that there’s been a major influx of homeless people around here, putting our students at risk. As long as they push them out of downtown, they’re out of the peripheral of the rest of the world and Seattle tourism won’t be affected. This problem of pushing the homeless around constantly from place to place is the city’s bandaid for a greater problem of solving homelessness.
For reference ^^^^
TLDR: I believe I saw the UW stabber, but the police bureaucracy just kept sending me to lines with no active agents instead of deploying police.
submitted by /u/Pyro_Lord25
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