Teenage girl a suspect in man's fatal stabbing in Federal Way

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — A man is dead and a teenage girl under police guard after an early morning stabbing in the parking lot of an apartment complex on First Avenue South in Federal Way.

Officers arrived around 8 a.m. Friday to find a 35-year-old man dead from a stab wound and a 16-year-old girl suffering from what investigators describe as self-inflicted wounds. A department commander says she is now a suspect in the man's death.

A friend of the teenage suspect told KIRO 7 the man was her mother’s new boyfriend and that she had talked about having problems with him.

“She didn’t like him,” said Marcell Duncan-Smith. “She was, like, 'I hate this n****'. That’s all she kept saying is, 'I hate him,' and she was, like, 'I’m going to move out of here, get out of here.'”

Neighbors told KIRO 7 they didn't hear yelling or any disturbance before officers got there. Then they heard shouting and saw them arresting the 16-year-old at gunpoint.

“They got guns drawn,” Vona Fitchhorn said after looking out her apartment window. “That’s when we saw a woman, they had her on the curb.”

Police have released few details after interviewing the suspect's mother at the scene. A large section of the parking lot of the apartments remained behind yellow police tape for most of the day. People living nearby say there have been incidents at the complex in the past but that’s it's usually a quiet place.

“We’ve had a few police activities but nothing like the stabbing,” said Sonjya Sawyer, who described the incident as frightening. “It’s a little closer to home that I thought it would be.”

The 16-year-old suspect was transported to Harborview Medical Center with what police said were non-life-threatening injuries. She will remain under police guard until her release and then taken into custody.

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