Police suspect attempted murder-suicide in U-District apartment fire
SEATTLE -- Seattle police confirmed an apartment fire in the University District early Wednesday morning was intentionally set, and the Seattle Times said detectives are investigating it as an attempted murder-suicide.
Just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, Seattle police officers responded to a report of a disturbance on the ninth floor of an apartment building in the 4500 block of 7th Avenue NE in the University District. When officers arrived, they smelled smoke coming from the apartment and were able to see a fire inside.
Officers tried to get in but the door was blockaded, police said, and a man inside refused to follow directions and allow them into the building.
Firefighters managed to break down the barricaded door and put out the blaze. They quickly found one man had either jumped or fallen from a ninth-floor window and was dead on the ground below. A 44-year-old man was found inside the apartment suffering from smoke inhalation and burns. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition.
"Detectives have confirmed that the fire was intentionally set and are investigating the circumstances behind the incident," the Seattle Police Department blotter said late Wednesday.
The Seattle Times quoted police spokesman Mark Jamieson as saying, “What we think at this point is it could have been an attempted murder-suicide. We don’t know the relationship between the two guys.”