Man charged with throwing woman down light rail stairs now adds murder charges

Alexander Jay, 40, is now being charged with first-degree murder after allegedly committing two assaults, one by throwing a woman down the stairs at a light rail station, and the other by stabbing a different woman at a bus stop.

In the first assault case, the King County Prosecutor’s Office (KCPO) said surveillance video showed Jay throwing the victim down a flight of stairs multiple times. The victim suffered three broken ribs and a broken clavicle.

The incident happened at the light rail station on South Jackson Street and 5th Avenue in the International District around 11:40 a.m. and footage can be seen of Jay allegedly grabbing the woman by the hood of her coat and throwing her down the stairs multiple times.

Jay does not have any known connection to any of the victims, according to KCPO.

“The male who assaulted her was in the same car on the light rail train with her, facing her,” a detective wrote in the probable cause certificate. “She was standing, and he was seated. They had no interaction or confrontation. He continued to pull his mask down while on the light rail, and she got a good look at his face. The cross [tattoo] on his face stood out to her, and she recognized him as the same male who later assaulted her.”

After the attack, police said they have footage from a King County Metro Bus of Jay leaving the station and going to a bus stop at the intersection of 12^th Avenue South and South Jackson Street.

The victim described how a man, who they were later able to identify as Jay, came up behind them while they were distracted and stabbed her repeatedly in her neck, shoulders, and back. The woman was stabbed 8-10 times, before her attacker left.

According to court documents, Jay has a criminal record dating back to 2000. His recent charges include home burglary, assault, attempted assault, and domestic violence. In total, Jay has had seven cases in King County in the last five years.

Using surveillance, Seattle police were able to track down Jay. They made an arrest the following day about a half-mile from the location of the assault. He was booked on a Department of Corrections warrant and faced arraignment March 24.

Now Jay has been connected to a murder that happened around 12:26 a.m. March 3, and is now facing trial on those charges as well.

Police detail how the body of Brent Wood, 32, had been reported lying facedown on the sidewalk on E Olive Way, according to the charging documents. The person who called the police described seeing blood leak out onto the sidewalk from the victim’s head.

Police recovered a piece of rebar near the scene that they believed killed Wood by blunt trauma to the back of the head.

Prosecutors believed they can tie Jay to the murder using security footage that showed a man with a similar build, gait, and clothing in the area where the murder happened.

Jay is scheduled for an arraignment in the murder case at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 29 at the King County Courthouse.