The King County Prosecutor’s Office today formally charged 44-year-old Donnell Jackson with first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder for the fatal stabbing of 46-year-old college English professor Troy Wolff Friday night in Pioneer Square. Wolf’s partner, Kristin Ito, was also repeatedly stabbed in the random attack, though she survived. According to charging documents her condition has been upgraded from critical to satisfactory.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office says that each charge includes a deadly weapon enhancement. Jackson’s arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 30 at 8:30 a.m. at the King County Courthouse. He remains in jail with bail set at $2 million.
According to charging documents filed in the case (available above), Jackson told detectives that he’s schizophrenic and had been off his medication for “about four months.”
After his arrest Jackson was transported to the Seattle Police Homicide Office where, according to charging documents, he told detectives “he recognized the man and woman as being members of a group that was stalking him and trying to kill him. He said he saw the man on the light rail earlier, and that the man pulled out a gun while staring at him. He admitted stabbing them with a folding-blade knife. Such a knife was recovered at the scene.
Charging documents continue:
Jackson admitted the arresting SWAT officers that he was the person who stabbed the victims. He told the officer that the victims had “pulled a Glock on (him) an hour ago and where (sic) with a group that was holding several people hostage in South Seattle. He also told the officer that he had the whole thing on cell phone video, but that he’d thrown the phone over the overpass onto the railroad tracks below.
Also according to charging documents, a witness says that Jackson kept repeating “blood money” while standing over the victims after the stabbing.
Police say the attack was completely random and – despite Jackson’s statements to the contrary – the victims were complete strangers to him
You can read my story from earlier today on how cuts in mental health funding are creating a safety crisis downtown here.
