Victim killed in stabbing along I-5 in Federal Way identified

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — A violent and fatal incident delayed traffic near the SeaTac rest area along Interstate 5 in Federal Way for hours Wednesday afternoon.

Officers say it was the result of a fight with weapons inside a single car.

According to Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson, at around 3 p.m. 911 received calls about a “domestic violence incident” involving a car in a ditch, with people screaming for help as someone had been hurt.

Troopers arrived to find four injured people in and around a black BMW.

The man who was driving was found dead in his seat from a large stab wound to the neck. He has been identified by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office as 19-year-old Patriot Ryan Lemay from Federal Way.

Another man who was sitting in the front passenger seat was found stabbed on the ground next to the BMW and taken to hospital by paramedics.

An injured woman with stab wounds and a third man, who had been shot, were in the backseat of the BMW but had reportedly distanced themselves from the car before officers arrived. They were also both taken to the hospital by paramedics.

According to Trooper Johnson, everyone in the BMW was a potential suspect, and the three survivors were all detained as of Wednesday afternoon. He says that only one car was involved, and there was no ongoing danger to the community.

“Everyone in the vehicle obviously is potentially, you know, a suspect. We just don’t have it figured out. The chronology of what just happened,” said Johnson.

Around 2:30 p.m., the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) first noted the incident that was partially blocking the off-ramp to SeaTac rest area.

The incident also blocked the two right lanes of Interstate 5 in that area. According to WSDOT, an Incident Response team and State Patrol responded to the scene, and drivers were to expect delays in the area with no ETA for reopening.

As of 5:30 p.m., traffic backup extended 7.5 miles into Tacoma, at the intersection of I-5 and I-705. WSDOT Tacoma told drivers to expect longer-than-average wait times if traveling northbound in the South Sound.

On Friday, Trooper Johnson informed the public that a suspect had been identified and charges forwarded.

WSP detectives and the Crime Scene Response Team investigated the scene until 11 pm. on Wednesday and after conducting subsequent interviews, determined that the man in the back seat of the BMW, who had been shot, was the suspect that stabbed the driver and the other two passengers. Detectives are still determining who fired the handgun.

The suspect is still in hospital, but as soon as he is medically cleared he will be booked into the King County Jail for second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault.

This is still an active investigation, and Trooper Johnson says that the rest of the names of those involved will not be released until the suspect is booked or charges are filed by the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

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