Blind man attacked with his own cane, stabbed in WA

Blind, elderly man stabbed and beaten with his own cane

A SWAT team arrested a suspect who assaulted a blind man with his walking cane and then stabbed him inside a Seattle apartment complex on Sunday.

SEATTLE - A SWAT team arrested a suspect who assaulted a blind man with his walking cane and then stabbed him inside a Seattle apartment complex on Sunday.

According to the Seattle Police Department (SPD), on Aug. 11 at around 7:16 p.m., officers responded to an assault at an apartment complex on Rainier Ave. S near 39th Ave. S.

Officers arrived and found the 60-year-old victim bleeding and suffering from a stab wound to his abdomen. He was also complaining of a head injury. Seattle Fire Department medics treated him at the scene before bringing him to Harborview Medical Center in serious but stable condition.

Initially, officers detained a woman at the scene due to misinformation. However, she was quickly determined to be a witness to the incident, not a suspect.

Authorities said the incident happened on the fourth floor of the apartment complex near the elevators. The investigating officer, who reviewed surveillance video of the incident, described the assault as "horrific".

The video showed the suspect striking the blind man in the back of the head with his own walking cane. When the victim attempted to defend himself, the suspect stabbed him in the abdomen with what authorities say was a "three to four-inch switchblade".

The victim stumbled backward, cried out for help and bystanders called 911.

The suspect, identified as 47-year-old Seattle resident Matthew Hadley, fled into his residence and refused to comply with officers’ orders to exit.

Police negotiators then arrived at the scene to try to get him to surrender, but he still refused to get out.

During the standoff, an officer obtained a search warrant approved by a judge. Given the felony nature of the assault and the involvement of a deadly weapon, SPD's SWAT team was deployed to serve the high-risk warrant.

Eventually, the SWAT team arrested the suspect. According to the SPD, he was found in possession of a switchblade knife, believed to be the weapon used in the stabbing, and two other knives were also taken into evidence.

The suspect was initially booked into the King County jail on two counts of second-degree assault.

The SPD later reported that the victim was in surgery for a lacerated liver, leading the primary investigating officer to update the probable cause for the stabbing to first-degree assault, citing the location and severity of the injuries inflicted by a deadly weapon.