Son stabs parents in Olympia House

OLYMPIA, Washington – A Thurston County judge found enough evidence to jail a man who police say armed himself with both a knife and a sword and stabbed both parents. Prosecutors have filed documents claiming they have probable cause to charge the man with two counts of attempted murder.

Olympia police said they received a suspicious 911 call from a home in the 3500 block of Merryman Place Southeast around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. All the dispatcher could hear was some sort of commotion or struggle in the background, so officers were dispatched to the scene.

Court documents state that Thurston Dispatch 911 heard a woman screaming, “My son has a knife,” before the screaming became unintelligible. Rebecca Valenzuela lives next door and was on her way home after walking her dog when she heard a loud noise and quickly went inside.

“We peek out and see the police breaking down the neighbors’ front door, and at that point I didn’t know it was the police,” Valenzuela said.

When the police arrived at the scene, they heard a woman screaming from the upper floor of a house and immediately entered. Officers entered through a locked bedroom door and saw a man with a sword standing over a woman who was lying on the floor with multiple stab wounds.

The police ordered the man with the sword to throw him to the ground. At first he obeyed, but then fought back against the officers, so they subdued him with a Taser and took him into custody. The 37-year-old suspect, who KOMO News is not naming because he has not been formally charged, was booked into jail on suspicion of two counts of attempted second-degree murder.

“We watched from our bedroom window as they took the man out in handcuffs and then we watched as they took out two neighbors and at that point we didn’t believe they had made it,” Valenzuela said.

According to court documents, the attack began with an argument over how loud the suspect was playing his music. From then on he started beating his mother and then his father. Things escalated when he entered her bedroom with a knife and started stabbing her. At some point, he switched to an air pistol and the sword that Olympic police referred to as a katana. Court documents said he yelled at his father and said, “You have ruined my life and I hate you.”

A check of the suspect’s criminal history revealed that he was in prison for a robbery committed in 2008. He is also convicted of assault, fleeing police, resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer.

Police said the two victims were his parents, both 72, and all three lived together in the home. Both were taken to hospitals in critical condition. A spokesman for Harborview Medical Center said the man remains in critical condition. KOMO News could not immediately receive an update on the condition of the woman, who was repeatedly stabbed.