Been kind of a crazy week
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
On Sunday morning there was an assault and stabbing in my building. Happened to be my neighbors, and I was the second person to call 911. Spent much of the rest of the day talking to police, writing a statement, giving a recorded interview with a Domestic Violence Unit detective.
I talked quite a bit about this on Twitter Sunday*, but I haven’t mentioned it here until now. I wasn’t sure if I was going to mention it here at all, since it involves other people in a sensitive story, but I decided since it was part of my life and the victim’s anonymity has been maintained in the news coverage, posting about that coverage was okay.
Anyway. After the jump, the latest story about the case from one of the local papers.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Charges filed in attempted human ‘sacrifice’
King County prosecutors filed assault charges Wednesday against a Seattle man accused of attempting to “sacrifice” his live-in girlfriend.
According to police, Oumar Lam’s 26-year-old girlfriend arrived at their Queen Anne apartment Sunday to find him laying naked on a couch near a candle-lit altar. The woman told police she was seated on a bed when Lam attacked her from behind, pulling a pillowcase over her head and attempting to suffocate her.
Pulling her head back, Lam, 31, allegedly sliced the woman’s throat while yelling in an unidentified language, according to court documents. She told police she attempted to break away from him as he pulled her toward the altar, at which he had apparently been praying for hours prior to her arrival.
Police assert that Lam continued stabbing her during the struggle, cutting her chest, back and shoulder before she was able to dial 911. The woman, police said in court documents, “was extremely fearful that Lam was trying to kill her as part of a sacrifice.”
The woman told police he was ranting to himself throughout the attack.
“Die, die and go alone,” Lam said repeatedly, according to police reports. “You have to go by yourself.”
The woman fled the apartment, pursued by a still-nude Lam, according to police. Lam dragged her back to the apartment.
Weakened from blood loss, the woman was still able to rush to the door when officers knocked. According to police, Lam continued to chant when confronted by officers.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a first-degree assault charges against Lam, with sentencing enhancements for domestic violence and the use of a deadly weapon. Requesting that bail be set at $1 million in the attack, Deputy Prosecutor David Gross described the incident in court documents as a “vicious attack (that) shows that the defendant is an immeasurable threat to the community.”
The woman underwent emergency surgery at Harborview Medical Center following the incident and is expected to survive.
Bail has not been set in the case because Lam, who remains in King County Jail, has refused to attend two hearings. He is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 11 and faces 10 to 13 years in prison if convicted.