The friend of a woman who was beaten to death in a tent under the Magnolia Bridge on Monday said the victim “always had my back.” The suspect was shot by a Seattle police officer shot after he charged from his tent, police said.
The woman who was beaten to death in a tent under the Magnolia Bridge was a loyal friend and a wonderful person, according to a woman who described herself as one of the victim’s closest friends.
“I love you, girl,” said the woman named Lisa as she carefully sifted through some of the victim’s belongings left under the bridge on Tuesday afternoon.
Lisa, who didn’t want to give her last name, said the victim, Stacey Davis, would have wanted to her to have, and use, anything left behind.
“She always had my back,” she said, tearing up. “I’ll miss her unique laugh.”
Most Read Local Stories
The two women, both homeless and camping near each other, met about three years ago, Lisa said.
The suspected killer, a 52-year-old man, was shot in the leg early Tuesday morning by a Seattle police SWAT officer at the homeless encampment where Davis was killed the night before. Police said the man rushed naked from his tent and was armed with a metal-enforced wood beam when he was shot in the leg, police said.
The suspect was taken to Harborview Medical Center with a non-life-threatening wound. The SWAT officer has been placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, police said.
According to Seattle police, a witness called Seattle Fire Department medics and police to the bridge, in the 1600 block of 15th Avenue West in the Interbay neighborhood, around 9:45 p.m. Monday.
Once there, they were flagged down by the victim’s husband who was also attacked by the same man, police said.
The male victim identified himself as Scott Davis, according to KOMO-TV, and said he and his wife had been eating in their tent when they were attacked and beaten by their neighbor at the small encampment.
“This guy was crazy. He said he thought I was the devil or something,” Davis told KOMO.
According to Lisa, the man was “going crazy” and the attack was out of character for him.
Police said the suspect was screaming, yelling and chanting Bible verses inside his tent and refused to come out.
Hostage negotiators spent hours trying to persuade the man to surrender before SWAT officers were called out to the scene, according to SPD Capt. Neil Low.
The naked man charged from his tent early Tuesday morning and was shot in the leg by the SWAT officer around 3 a.m., said police.
Homicide and crime-scene investigation detectives are investigating the homicide while another group of detectives is investigating the officer-involved shooting.
The shooting is the second officer-involved shooting for Seattle police this year. Samuel Smith, 27, was fatally shot in Ravenna after he charged an officer with a knife on July 17. Police had been looking for Smith because he was believed to have been involved in a hit-and-run accident in which a police car was struck on Interstate 5, police said.
While walking away from the crime scene Tuesday, Lisa stopped to write a note to the victim’s husband on a cardboard sign he’d used earlier to ask for money for a memorial to his slain wife.
She wrote that she and her boyfriend were saving a sleeping spot for Davis and invited him to camp with them.
“They had a true love for each other that I envied,” she said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen to him now. She took care of him and I’m worried.”