SEATTLE — The man accused in a string of mass stabbings in Seattle’s Chinese-International District (CID) in early November appeared in court Wednesday where a judge granted a motion for a mental competency evaluation from the defense.
According to court documents, the court granted the defense’s motion for an in-custody competency evaluation for Roland Lee, 37, accused of stabbing five people in the CID. State prosecutors are trying to prove that Lee stabbed five people within 38 hours between Nov. 7 and 8.
Lee will go through the evaluation to determine his current mental state, which can change throughout the life of a case, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Defendants are always presumed competent, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. A defendant is incompetent if through mental disease or defect one or both statements about them are true:
- Unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against them.
- Unable to aid in their defense.
On Nov. 8, multiple law enforcement agencies from across the City of Seattle responded to the latest incident on Nov. 8 around 2:15 p.m. at the 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street intersection in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. A spokesperson with the department said that five people were stabbed.
Each of the victims’ wounds vary from a minor cut to a severe stab wound, he said.
Four victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment in critical condition, one of them still had the knife in his wound when paramedics arrived. One man was upgraded to serious in the center’s ICU Saturday morning, and two others remain serious in the ICU. The fourth victim remains satisfactory.
One victim didn’t need treatment and was released.
Police only recovered one knife used in the incident and no other weapons were found at the scene.
This mass casualty incident is connected to five other separate stabbings that happened within the last 38 hours, the spokesperson said. In total, there have been 10 different stabbings in a variety of locations, wounding nine men and one woman. One of the incidents involved a robbery that turned violent.
The spokesperson said that the suspect, later identified as Lee, was also injured Friday and taken into custody without incident. Police say he was also involved in five other stabbings that happened in the neighborhood during the last two days. One of the other stabbings involved a robbery and the others were random attacks.
He is being held on a $2 million bond.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 16 in the King County Courthouse. Defendants are innocent until proven guilty in court.
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