No Clear Suspect Yet in UW Attack
By Jennifer Sullivan, Seattle Times
Feb. 27–Seattle police said Tuesday they “haven’t ruled anybody out” in the hammer attack on a University of Washington student during an attempted carjacking last month near the campus.
Responding to questions about a 24-year-old man identified as a person of interest in the attack on the 22-year-old woman, police said their investigation is not zeroing in on any one individual.
“We haven’t focused on anybody,” said department spokesman Mark Jamieson. “If this guy was a suspect he would be in custody.”
The man has been described as similar in race, size, hair color and clothing style to the man who attacked the woman Jan. 10 near the UW. Police searched the man’s house Jan. 16 in connection with a December robbery and the January hammer attack.
During the search, police confiscated three hammers, a cellphone and a dark-colored jacket with white stripes, according to search-warrant papers. According to a surveillance video of the Jan. 10 attack, the hammer-wielding man wore a dark jacket with light-colored stripes.
The person of interest was arrested Jan. 30 for investigation of robbery after a UW student told police the man had robbed him at gunpoint during a marijuana sale, according to the search-warrant paperwork. The suspect was released on bail Feb. 19, according to jail records.
The man is charged with two counts of robbery, stemming from the armed robbery of the UW student in December and the Dec. 16 robbery of a Garlic Jim’s Pizza delivery driver at knife-point, also in the University District.
The 22-year-old woman was in the 1800 block of Northeast 47th Street on the morning of Jan. 10 when a man in his 20s or 30s confronted her and demanded her car keys, according to the search warrant. When she refused, the man attacked her with a hammer, fracturing her skull and eye socket, according to the warrant.
The assailant took the woman’s Nokia cellphone before running away, according to the warrant.
The woman, a UW engineering student, is taking time off from her classes for rehabilitation sessions, according to a friend.
Mary Erickson, who has sponsored the woman since she moved to Seattle from Rwanda four years ago, said the injured student has been surprised by the number of people who have stepped forward to help with her recovery.
“She feels really great that some of these people are behind her and that the university is really paying attention to it and stepping up security,” Erickson said.
Erickson said the woman, who has asked not to be identified for her safety, may have permanent injuries from the attack.
“She’s doing well. She’s out of the hospital,” Erickson said. “I know the police are looking at a number of different suspects. I would like to be hopeful.”
Seattle Times staff reporter Natalie Singer contributed to this report.
Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com
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