Bellevue grocery worker chases, stabs shoplifting suspect
Oct 2, 2014, 9:22 AM | Updated: 9:27 am
Police think a downtown Bellevue grocery store employee acted in self-defense when he chased down and stabbed a suspected shoplifter.
Officers responded to almost simultaneous 911 calls Wednesday night, one about a stabbing victim at NE 4th and 110th Ave. NE and another about a Safeway employee covered in blood a couple of blocks away.
Detectives believe that a 37-year-old man clobbered a Safeway employee over the head with a bottle when the employee confronted the man about shoplifting.
Officer Seth Tyler said the man ran out of the store and the employee followed. The chase ended about two blocks away in a bank parking lot where the employee pulled a knife and stabbed the suspected shoplifter multiple times. The employee then returned to the grocery store.
“At this point, in the investigation it appears that this is a case of self-defense,” said Tyler.
Police interviewed several witnesses and the store employee, who has been released.
The man with the stab wounds is being treated for critical injuries at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
