SEATTLE — The city marked its fourth homicide of 2024 on Saturday morning, according to the Seattle Police Department, when a homeless man was killed in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood.
Police said around 7 a.m., a passerby called 911 reporting a man was down in an alley near the 300 block of 12th Avenue in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood.
Police said the man was in his 50s and had obvious head trauma, but neighbors living near where the man died shed more light on who he was.
Neighbors said the man who died was a homeless and had been living in the area for years. They said where he was killed is the spot he slept every single night. They said he was friendly and kept to himself, but was truly a part of the neighborhood community.
“It's unsettling because, you know, he was just like a fixture,” said Paul Rivera, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. “You know, he didn't harm anyone. What happened to him ... it’s unnecessary.”
Throughout the day, Saturday a memorial grew in the spot where the man was killed. Neighbors left signs, notes, and flowers honoring and remembering the man who they all saw every day.
Some of the notes said things like:
"Our gentle neighbor, sleep in peace now" and "You didn't deserve your hard life or the way it ended. RIP."
Neighbors said he was humble and friendly, never accepting food or money, and just wanted a safe place to sleep.
“Every day I came home from work, I would see him there just laying in bed, getting ready for the night,” said Rivera.
Neighbors were shocked and saddened when they saw police near the area he sleeps Saturday morning.
“I came down here to check because the guy that sleeps there, he's been sleeping there every night for like the past four years, just to see if anything happened. And then you could kind of see the blood under the cars,” said Tamas Farkas, who has lived in the neighborhood for five years. “Every time you walk by here, anytime, you'll see him sleeping there. He seems like he was kind of part of the community in a way.”
Now, community members are honoring the man and making sure he is remembered. They said he deserved to be safe, they said he didn’t deserve this.
“He was just very, very humble,” said Rivera. “He meant no threat to anyone. He just needed a place to stay and sleep.”
There is no one in custody yet for this crime. Police are asking anyone with information to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.