A 28-year-old woman is in critical condition after being stabbed multiple times in the parking garage of the Gateway office building in Kirkland Friday morning.
The 50-year-old female suspect turned herself in later that evening after seeking medical care for injuries incurred during the assault. The suspect is an acquaintance of the victim.
The victim called 911 at 10:40 a.m. Friday from her cell phone after the suspect stabbed her multiple times on the bottom floor of the Northeast parking garage at the office building, which is located at 11250 Kirkland Way, near the 85th Street 405 South on-ramp.
Before police arrived, Zaffer Lalji, a Re/Max Northwest Realtors’ agent, found the woman in the parking garage, who was “in and out of consciousness,” according to Srgt. Robert Saloum, Kirkland Police public information officer.
“I had just pulled in to the parking garage and I heard her cry for help,” Lalji recalled. “She was bleeding and lying down on the ground. I asked her, ‘did you fall down?’ That was the first thought that went through my mind.”
The victim told Lalji that she had been stabbed in her “back, neck and hand,” Lalji said, adding he didn’t know the woman. “She was butchered.”
Lalji directed medical personnel and police to where the woman was.
“The woman gave police an idea of where she was in the parking garage, but not exactly,” said Saloum.
When Kirkland Police arrived, the victim was able to tell officers the suspect was someone she knows, said Saloum.
The woman was transported to Harborview Medical Center, where she is in critical condition.