Police arrest a man after 9 people are stabbed over 2 days in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) — A man has been arrested in connection with a spate of random stabbings over two days in Seattle, in which nine people were injured -- five of them on Friday afternoon, police said.

“This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing random assaults,” Deputy Chief Eric Barden said at the scene Friday.

The stabbings on Friday afternoon took place in a roughly four-block area in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

Witnesses reported a description of the suspect and officers found him nearby and took him into custody, police said. A weapon was found near the person who was arrested, and a knife was lodged in one of the victims, police said.

Four of the victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and one victim was treated at the scene and released. A Harborview spokesperson confirmed four victims were at the hospital and said all were in critical condition. As of Friday evening, two of them remained in critical condition, one had been upgraded to serious condition and the other to satisfactory condition, the spokesperson said.

Barden said police suspect that the person arrested in connection with Friday's stabbings is the same person involved with at least four other stabbings that happened starting early Thursday. He cited similar suspect descriptions and the randomness of the attacks, but added that the investigation is ongoing.

The Thursday stabbings in Chinatown started when a 52-year-old woman was found with multiple stab wounds, police said. On Thursday afternoon, a 32-year-old man was found after being stabbed multiple times and at about 8 p.m. a 37-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the back, police said.

Then early on Friday, police responding to an assault call found a 53-year-old man bleeding heavily from a neck injury. Police followed a blood trail to a nearby doorway and unsuccessfully used that as a starting point for police dogs to try and track a suspect.

“It is my understanding that everyone is alive,” Barden said of the victims on Friday afternoon.

Police said a 10th stabbing on Thursday night involved a cellphone robbery in which someone forcibly opened a vehicle door and tried to stab a 60-year-old man in the chest. The victim blocked the assault and was cut on his hand, police said. It was not clear that it was connected to the random attacks, police said.

People wait for a bus near the area where multiple people were stabbed earlier Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Police officers gather security camera footage from nearby businesses after multiple people were stabbed earlier in the area Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Drivers move through the area where multiple people were stabbed earlier Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Police officers stand near the scene as they gather security camera footage after multiple people were stabbed in the area Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Police officers take a statement from a nearby business owner after multiple people were stabbed Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Police officers stand near the scene as they gather security camera footage after multiple people were stabbed Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lawyers for the state of Louisiana asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to immediately block a judge's ruling ordering education officials to tell all local districts that a law requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge declared the law “unconstitutional on its face” in a lengthy decision Tuesday and ordered education officials to notify the state’s 72 local school boards of that fact.

The state plans to appeal the entirety of deGravelles’ order, but the emergency appeal at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is aimed at just one aspect of it. State attorneys say the judge overstepped his authority when he ordered that all local school boards be notified of his finding because only five districts are named as defendants in a legal challenge to the law.

Those districts are in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Tammany, Orleans and Vernon parishes.

Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley and the state education board are also defendants in the lawsuit and were ordered by deGravelles to take no steps to implement the law.

But the state contends that because officials have no supervisory power over local, elected school boards, the order applies to just the five boards.

The law was passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature this year and signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry in June.

In Tuesday's ruling, deGravelles said the law has an “overtly religious” purpose and rejected state officials’ claims that the government can mandate the posting of the Ten Commandments because they hold historical significance to the foundation of U.S. law.

His opinion noted that no other foundational documents such as the Constitution or the Bill of Rights are required to be posted.

Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill, a GOP ally of Landry, said Tuesday that the state disagrees with deGravelles’ finding.

FILE - Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks alongside Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry during a press conference regarding the Ten Commandments in schools Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. (Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP, File)