Seattle Ex-Con Charged in Unprovoked Stabbing, Highlights Repeat-Offender Crime Wave

SEATTLE — A 44-year-old repeat offender, Jose Francisco Garcia, faces first-degree assault charges after allegedly stabbing a man in the stomach in an unprovoked attack in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District, police said, underscoring a surge in violent crimes linked to lenient policies toward career criminals.

Surveillance video captured Garcia approaching a 40-year-old man pulling a cart on a sidewalk, stabbing him from behind, and fleeing on a bicycle. The victim, seriously injured, was rushed to Harborview Medical Center. Police arrested Garcia within nine minutes of the 911 call, recovering a small, fixed-blade knife with a Paracord-wrapped handle from his waistband.

Garcia’s criminal history dates back to 1997, with convictions for third-degree assault, fourth-degree assault, harassment, obstructing law enforcement, drunken driving, unlawful firearm possession, and attempting to disarm an officer, among others. He also faced pending drug charges from November. In Oregon, he was convicted of aggravated harassment, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct.

Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, blamed “soft-on-crime policies” driven by “unreasonable activists” for enabling repeat offenders like Garcia. “This is another example of laws that harm communities and erode public safety,” Solan said, noting Seattle’s police force has lost about 700 officers over the past decade, crippling morale and response capabilities.

The stabbing follows a string of violent incidents in the Chinatown-International District, including two shootings last month and another on Monday that left one man dead and another injured. Seattle’s struggles mirror a broader trend of repeat-offender violence in cities like Charlotte, where a suspect with over a dozen prior charges allegedly stabbed a woman to death on a light rail train last month.

Solan called for urgent reforms to reverse policies that allow habitual criminals to evade accountability, warning that “normal citizens are fed up and want to take their cities back.”

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