Seattle’s restaurant community is mourning the death of one of its own. A chef was stabbed to death at the Capitol Hill light rail station on Saturday night.
Now the search for his killers has begun.
We learned that the 37-year-old victim was a chef at Harry’s Fine Foods in Seattle’s Capitol Hill. After receiving news of the chef’s death, the owners of Harry’s Fine Foods closed their doors on what would have been a busy Mother’s Day. The owners plan to close tomorrow as well.
This is how deeply this tragedy is being felt here. A bouquet of flowers and a sign all indicate that this was no ordinary Mother’s Day at this small neighborhood restaurant.
“Whenever this happens, it’s always a real person,” Eedie DeRoest said.
The 37-year-old chef at Harry’s Fine Foods was important to DeRoest. He was her co-worker for the month and a half she worked here.
She was asked how she was doing.
“I mean, I don’t know,” she said, with sadness in her voice. “I don’t pretend I knew him very well, you know. I’m sorry for your family and friends. I imagine.”
Witnesses said that about a half-mile away, at the Capitol Hill Light Rail station, he got into a fight with two men that quickly turned violent. Seattle police say he was stabbed multiple times. Good Samaritans tried to stop the bleeding, but he later died at Harborview Medical Center.
His death is hitting Seattle’s tight-knit restaurant community hard.
“We’re all connected in some way,” said Shea Bigger, a local waitress. “We all have mutual friends. So it happens, you know, you feel it.
In a statement, Sound Transit insists the light rail system is safe. There were 3.4 million light rail passengers and just 47 attacks through February. But in its 15 years of life, three pilots have died here, two of them since January.
“It would be a great day,” DeRoest said. “We were all trying to say ‘eat your wheats, you know. It’s going to be a great day.’”
DeRoest says the owners made the right decision by closing on Mother’s Day, even on a potentially big revenue day. Your coworker’s death is a stark reminder of the uncertainty of life.
“It’s just that you never know what’s going to happen,” she said.
Sound Transit insists such deadly attacks are rare. Still, they plan to increase security at the Capitol station to make passengers feel safer.
There are cameras throughout the light rail system, so Seattle police probably have some idea what these suspects look like.
But anyone with information that could help catch the culprits is asked to call 911.
