KENT, Wash. — Kent police arrested a man for a hate crime and aggravated assault after a woman was stabbed numerous times.
The man arrested had a first court appearance in King County and is being held on $250,000 bail. He has not been formally charged, but prosecutors believe there is enough evidence for a hate crime.
"The allegations here are very concerning. And when you see allegations like this, you can expect prosecutors to ask for a high bail," said Casey McNerthney with the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
Thursday night in Kent, police got a 911 call from a woman who said she had been stabbed and her attacker was getting away.
Officers said it started on a King County Metro Bus when the man started calling the woman derogatory names and spit at her. Probable cause documents said he made racist remarks about black people.
The woman felt unsafe, and police said she walked to the front of the bus and asked the driver to call the police. Officers said the suspect followed her and grabbed her by the throat. He then pulled her off the bus, started to punch her and stabbed her numerous times.
KPD said she was wearing a bulky jacket that protected her from being seriously hurt. There was another man with the suspect and police said the two ran off down Central Avenue South and both were found hiding blocks away.
The second suspect, who police said did not assault the victim, was arrested for obstruction.
In a statement, Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said, "I want to say this in the strongest way that I can: Hate crimes will not be tolerated. If you commit a hate crime in our city, KPD will be relentless in our pursuit of bringing you to justice.”
"We'd like to say that this is a rare occurrence, but we actually see this happen way more often than people realize, and we know that hate crimes are also underreported," said McNerthney.
According to data from the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office dashboard, 63 hate crime cases were referred to prosecutors in 2020. Since then, these types of cases have been on the decline, with 27 cases in 2023 and one other case so far this year.
"We want people to know that we're taking these cases seriously, and we're gonna keep doing that," McNerthney said.
Prosecutors said they are expecting to get more information from police and make a charging decision next week.
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