Police arrest man suspected in U District anti-trans ‘hate crime attack’
March 28, 2025 at 3:32 pm By Catalina Gaitán Seattle Times staff reporter Seattle police arrested a 39-year-old man suspected of participating in a “violent hate crime attack” with several other men against a transgender person in Seattle’s University District on Thursday night.
The Seattle Fire Department treated the victim at the scene for major injuries to their face and stomach, said Detective Eric Muñoz, a Seattle Police Department spokesperson.
Muñoz deferred questions about the case to the King County prosecuting attorney’s office, which did not immediately respond to phone and email inquiries Friday.
The victim called 911 to report a group of men in the street had attacked them while using anti-transgender slurs near Northeast 47th Street and University Way Northeast at about 6 p.m., the Seattle Police Department said in an online statement Friday afternoon.
Police determined there was probable cause for a hate crime investigation after interviewing multiple witnesses and the victim, who escaped their alleged attackers and fled into a nearby business to get help. The suspects were gone by the time officers arrived, police said.
Officers matched the description of one of the alleged attackers and his vehicle to a person involved in another incident. Police found the man at his home and arrested him, police said.
Seattle bias crime detectives are investigating and looking for additional suspects, according to the statement.
The Seattle Police Department has recorded 19 hate crimes during the first two months of this year, police data show.
In February, a 42-year-old man was charged with a hate crime after police said he yelled an anti-Black racial slur and attacked a woman in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood. Police are also investigating after two or three young men in February yelled homophobic slurs and fired a water bead gun at people outside a queer bar in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Police recorded 25 hate crimes during the first two months of 2024, and 17 during the first two months of 2023, according to Seattle Police Department data.