(Reuters) — Police arrested a man suspected of stabbing five people on the streets of downtown Seattle on Friday and believe he may be the same person responsible for five other stabbings in the same Chinatown area since early on Thursday morning, police said.
Deputy Chief Eric Barden told reporters at the scene the unidentified perpetrator appeared to target victims randomly as only one victim was robbed — of a cellphone.
In each stabbing there was a single victim, and nine of the 10 targets were men, Barden said. Injuries ranged from minor cuts to serious stab wounds, with four of Friday’s victims taken to a hospital.
“This is a horrific tragedy, a mass casualty event,” Barden said.
The arresting officers recovered a weapon near the suspect, and a knife remained in the body of one of the victims.
Some of the victims visually identified the suspect after his arrest, Barden said.
Random stabbing sprees are rare in the United States, where mass shootings are more common.