Man arrested in fatal stabbing of University of Washington student

Seattle police arrested a 31-year-old man in the killing of a 19-year-old transgender University of Washington student, after detectives released suspect photos and asked the public for help. The suspect turned himself in to the Bellevue Police Department around 10:20 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, then was transferred to Seattle police and booked into the King County Jail for investigation of murder.

Police said the student was found stabbed to death around 10:10 p.m. Sunday, May 10, in a laundry room at Nordheim Court Apartments, the off-campus UW housing complex at 5000 25th Avenue Northeast in Seattle. The King County Medical Examiner has not yet formally identified the victim, and Seattle police have not publicly identified the suspect or released a motive.

Investigators had previously described the suspect as a Black man about 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-8 with a slim build and beard, wearing a dark blue vest or zip shirt, button-up shirt and jeans. Seattle police released photos Wednesday as they continued asking for assistance from the public.

The killing sent shock waves through the University of Washington, where officials said shelter-in-place guidance for residents was issued after the death and later lifted. The university said support services were available for students, as the campus community began gathering near the apartment complex around flowers, candles, handwritten notes and a transgender pride flag.

UW President Robert J. Jones said violence against a trans person can be especially worrying for the LGBTQIA+ community, and said the Division of Student Life was reaching out to affected students. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said she was devastated and said her office was working with UW and the UW Q Center to support the communities surrounding the young trans woman.

The Washington State LGBTQ Commission called the killing a senseless and violent attack. The commission said reporting indicated the death was the seventh known trans person violently killed in the United States this year, a grim statistic that has heightened concern among transgender residents, advocates and students watching the case unfold.

Students at and near Nordheim Court also raised safety concerns, including allegations that the laundry-room door lock had been broken for months and that there had been a prior break-in at the complex. Those claims have not been independently confirmed in the notes reviewed, but they have added to scrutiny of conditions at the building where the student was killed. The case now sits at the intersection of a murder investigation and a broader fear that violence against transgender people is still being met with too little protection.