Tourists stabbed in downtown Seattle

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SEATTLE - Seattle Police have arrested a man they say stabbed two tourists in a random, unprovoked attack earlier this year.

On Feb. 21 around 3 p.m., two people walking on a sidewalk in the Pioneer Square neighborhood when they were suddenly attacked from behind with a sharp object. It felt like a knife but police later identified it as a broken part of a razor blade.

A witness said the suspect "leap frogged" onto a victim's back.

Both victims were sent to the hospital but they survived their injuries. One victim needed two staples on the side of his head.

According to Seattle Police officer Shawn Weismiller, the pair were visiting Seattle for a conference and were walking to the ferry when they were attacked.

It does not appear the man knew the victims at all.

Surveillance footage shows the suspect running from the scene and boarding a bus.

"Part of that is, when tragic circumstances like this and visitors to the city get assaulted, we want to make sure we identify those perpetrators and hold them accountable for the crimes they commit," Weismeiller said.

The 24-year-old suspect, Kadir Mohamed, was arrested on April 3 in the Columbia City neighborhood, which is about five miles south of where the stabbing happened. Police got a call for a suicidal person and recognized Mohamed as the suspect in the stabbing case.

Police were able to track his movements through city and metro surveillance footage thanks to witness accounts. The suspect was also seen tossing a cloth into a bush nearby. It was later determined to have blood on it.

When investigators submitted the cloth to the state for a DNA analysis, no match came back from the database.

Following Mohamed's arrest, investigators want to compare his DNA sample with that of the cloth.

Mohamed was charged with two counts of first-degree assault.