SEATTLE — King County Prosecutors have charged two people accused of stabbing a man in the University District last week.
Jimmie Patrick and Crystal Gibson were both charged with first-degree assault in connection to the Jan. 31 stabbing of a man at NE 45th Street and University Way.
Patrick, however, is charged with a hate crime after court documents said he said anti-Asian slurs before the stabbing.
King County prosecutors said when it comes to hate crimes, anti-Asian crimes are the second most common with two already making its way through the courts this year.
For prosecutors, hate crimes can be challenging.
“Hate crimes are difficult because before you charge it, you have to show the intent,” said Casey McNerthney with the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
He said, this case however, was clear cut.
According to charging documents, an Asian man was sitting in the passenger's seat of a van parked in an alley waiting for his friend. Documents said Crystal Gibson banged a cart into the van, then Jimmie Patrick demanded the victim move the van.
Police said Patrick started yelling anti-Asian slurs and referred to himself as a skinhead.
The victim told police he got out of the van to check for damage and confront Patrick about his words. Documents said Patrick threw rocks at the victim then stabbed him in the chest while Gibson pinned the victim’s arms.
“Anytime you have a hate crime it doesn't only affect the victims or survivors involved but anybody who identifies like that. They can look at that and say 'Could this happen to me?' and that's the scary part about it,” said McNerthney.
Since 2018, King County prosecutors have charged 260 hate crimes. Prosecutors said the most common type deal with race and ethnicity. It charged 41 of those in 2020 and the number dropped slightly to 31 in 2021.
Seattle Police Department’s newly released 2022 crime report showed bias crimes dropped 7% compared to 2021, and hate crimes went down 14%.
“They've dropped off a bit in terms of referrals since the highs in the pandemic and that's good but we know that hate crimes are the types of crimes that are under-reported,” said McNerthney.
That's where the Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC) steps in. it created a program to make it easier for people to report incidents of hate with staff speaking multiple languages. The group said it’s collected more than 500 reports of incidents of hate and bias through King County since 2020.
“We're able to also follow up with mental health, connecting them to pro bono legal assistance and be there for them so that they know how to process the information and also know where to turn for support,” said Michael Itti, CISC’s Executive Director.
The group is now offering bystander intervention training.
“We'll be on the bus, and we might hear something, and we'll be the first people to be able to say something. We can intervene by recording an incident, or distracting a perpetrator," Itti said.
Itti said he’s seen a demand for the training.
“People want to be empowered, they want to be able to understand what to do if they're a witness to or see an incident of hate and bias,” he said.
Jimmie Patrick has a criminal history with prior convictions for theft, domestic violence assault, and felony battery of a pregnant person. He’s held on a $500,000 bail.
Crystal Gibson does not have a known criminal history and is held on a $100,000 bail.