The man charged in a series of mass stabbings in Seattle’s Chinese International District (CID) in early November appeared in court Wednesday, where a judge granted a motion for a mental competency evaluation by the defense.
According to court documents, the court granted the defense’s request for an assessment of the competency of 37-year-old Roland Lee, who was accused of stabbing five people at the CID. Prosecutors are trying to prove that Lee stabbed five people within 38 hours between November 7 and 8.
Lee will undergo the evaluation to determine his current mental state, which could change during the course of a case, the King County Prosecutor’s Office said.
According to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, suspects are always considered competent. A suspect is incompetent if, due to a mental disorder or defect, one or both statements about him or her are true:
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I cannot understand the nature of the proceedings against them.
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Unable to assist in their defense.
On November 8, multiple law enforcement agencies from across the city of Seattle responded to the latest incident at around 2:15 PM on November 8 at the intersection of 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. A department spokesperson says five people have been stabbed.
The victims’ wounds range from a minor cut to a serious stab wound, he said.
Four victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition for treatment. One of them still had the knife in his wound when paramedics arrived. One man was upgraded to serious in the center’s ICU on Saturday morning, and two others remain serious in the ICU. The fourth victim remains satisfying.
One victim did not require treatment and was released.
Police found only one knife used in the incident and no other weapons were found at the scene.
This high-casualty incident is related to five other separate stabbings that have occurred in the past 38 hours, the spokesperson said. In total, ten different stabbings took place in different locations, injuring nine men and one woman. One of the incidents involved a robbery that turned violent.
The spokesperson said the suspect, later identified as Lee, was also injured on Friday and was taken into custody without incident. Police say he was also involved in five other stabbings that occurred in the area over the past two days. One of the other stabbings involved a robbery, the remaining were random attacks.
He is being held on a $2 million bond.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for December 16 at the King County Courthouse. Defendants are innocent until proven guilty in court.
