Ballard business owner witnesses events prior to RV stabbing

Jared told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson on Monday about the difficulties of running a business in Ballard amid Seattle’s homeless crisis.

“I was going to lunch; a couple — man and woman — were fighting outside their RV right next door to the Jack in the Box by us,” Jared said Monday. “It was loud. She ended up climbing on top of the RV and it took off.”

“I didn’t think I would wake up Friday morning and that would be the news,” Jared said just days later. “It’s pretty surreal to say the least.”

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The news was of an RV stabbing that occurred in the same area — either in, or around, the same RV Jared described on Monday. A woman in her 30s suffered stab wounds before showing up at a nearby convenience store in the early morning hours Friday. She was transported to a hospital and died a short time later. The stabbing may have happened inside the RV. KIRO 7 reports that blood-soaked sheets were found in the vehicle.

“I was going to call the cops (on Monday),” Jared said. “It looked like a domestic disturbance. I thought the guy might hit her, that sort of thing … I just thought, ‘Hey, it’s another drug addict’ and didn’t think anything of it. And I woke up this morning to see that RV on the news with our work in the background.”

Five years ago when Jared moved into the neighborhood, he said he wouldn’t have been so desensitized to the scene on Monday, before the RV stabbing. He’s worked at a fishing supply store in the neighborhood over the years. Even as a self-described “bleeding-heart Liberal,” he has gained experience and perspective on the homeless issue in Seattle. On one hand you want to help and be understanding of people in crisis. On the other hand, you don’t want parents to have to pick up heroin needles from a sports field as homeless campers have set up on the green.

“You don’t see any uplifting stories coming out of these RVs,” Jared said. “Nobody wants to see homeless families on the street, but nobody wants to live in the stuff that we see every day either. Nobody wants to come down here and shop and be harassed by a drunk homeless man.”

“I think there is a happy medium we need to find,” he said. “…  And I believe we are doing everything for (homeless in Seattle). I think the ones that (the city is) trying to find solutions for now, there are no solutions for. I think they want to be out on their own, they don’t want to follow any rules, they want to get high, they want to get drunk. These people we see aren’t the ones who want help. The ones who are getting help, want help and that’s money well spent.”

“I don’t want to point any fingers, I’m not trying to call anybody out, but how many of our city council and our mayor are down in these areas seeing this every day?” he added. “You can be sympathetic to a point … when you are around it every day for five years, I think it becomes enough and you go, ‘These are not people who want help.’”

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