Seattle police arrested a suspect on Wednesday for stealing a popular 80-year-old dog owner’s car. The dog owner died when she tried to protect the dogs, was pushed out of her car and struck by the fleeing suspect.
The 48-year-old suspect was identified after someone reported a man injuring a dog in a park about five miles away. Officers responded and found Ruth Dalton’s car nearby and were able to take fingerprints from her cellphone, Seattle Deputy Police Chief Eric Barden said during a news conference announcing the arrest.
The suspect who stabbed the dog was later arrested near his home by a SWAT team, Barden said. He was carrying a blood-stained knife and the keys to Dalton’s Subaru, he said.
“This is a tragic and horrific incident,” Barden said, adding that Dalton “was an active participant in community life … and that was taken away from her, her family, her friends and her community by this senseless violence.”
The suspect has eight previous convictions, including for negligent homicide in 1993, and has long suffered from mental health problems, Barden said.
The King County District Attorney’s Office said late Wednesday that it had not yet received the police investigation.
“Charges can be decided when police refer a case to the district attorney’s office. These referrals typically occur a few days after the initial hearing,” said spokesman Casey McNerthney, adding that more information should be available Thursday.
Police responded to reports of a carjacking in the Madison Valley neighborhood around 10 a.m. Tuesday and found a passerby performing CPR on a woman in the middle of the street, Barden said. Dalton was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dalton was in the driver’s seat when the man got into her car. She fought back when he tried to push her out, Barden said. Several bystanders tried to help her, including a man who approached the car but backed away when the suspect raised a knife, Barden said. The man returned with a baseball bat or stick, but the suspect drove away, ramming several cars and killing Dalton, he said.
Two dogs were in the car at the time, Dalton’s and another, Barden said. The dog killed in the park was wearing a tag with Dalton’s name on it, he said. It’s unclear where the other dog went, but Barden said he believed it was safe.
Witness Laura Dynan told the Seattle Times she was inside her home when she heard screeching tires. She came out and saw Dalton standing outside her car, struggling with someone in the car. Dynan said many people came to the woman’s aid, including one person with a baseball bat. The attacker then ran over Dalton and sped away.
“He didn’t have to back up,” she said. “This woman was in that car fighting for other people’s dogs and her own dog. Like it wasn’t about the car. It was about the dogs.”
