SEATTLE — Murder charges were filed against a man accused of stabbing a woman to death in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood on Monday.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office filed first-degree murder charges against Hans Dewey Van-Belkum for the killing of a woman identified as Kristin Benson, according to court documents.
Seattle Police records state officers were called before 11 a.m. to the Lewiston-Scargo Apartments, located at 2209 First Avenue, regarding a stabbing.
When officers arrived, they found the body of a Plymouth Housing Group case manager on her office floor.
Police said Benson had a knife in her back and had suffered additional stab wounds.
After searching the neighborhood, police found Van-Belkum and arrested him before 4 p.m.
Staff identified Van-Belkum as a resident of the apartments and the attacker, court documents stated.
Police said surveillance video and witness statements revealed Van-Belkum was buzzed into the building by a staffer. After entering the building, the suspect was seen carrying two bags of groceries in both hands. He stopped outside the victim’s office, put down the bags, reached under his coat and pulled out a large knife.
Documents state that he entered Benson’s office, and then screams were heard by another worker who ran to the victim’s doorway and saw the suspect making punching and stabbing motions at Benson, who was face down.
The other worker then ran back to her office as she was chased by the suspect, but then he slipped and fell, and she was able to lock the door, court records state.
Van-Belkum then went back toward Benson’s office and came upon the building’s nurse, who was able to lock her door. The suspect then entered the victim’s office and stabbed the victim again, leaving the knife her in her back, police records state.
Afterward, Van-Belkum tossed both bags of groceries he was carrying into the victim’s office and then punched another staffer to the ground but was pulled off of the worker by another tenant, police records state. He then fled.
The suspect was found six hours later and several blocks away with the same clothes police said he was seen wearing in video surveillance footage.
Homicide detectives interviewed the suspect. He was booked into the King County Jail on suspicion of murder.
Cox Media Group
