EVERETT — A Snohomish man was jailed Thursday, one day after allegedly beating another man unconscious with a pipe and sending him to the hospital with a fractured skull.
The victim, 20, was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett with what police described as life-threatening injuries that would require surgery.
“It is going to be a long road to recovery,” Everett police spokesman Aaron Snell said Friday.
The suspect, 22, was arguing in an alley with his girlfriend in the 1800 block of McDougall Avenue early Wednesday morning when a group of five people walked by, court papers said.
The man yelled at the passersby, attempting to start a fight. The man then ran down the alley, returned with a pipe and started using racial slurs, court papers said.
Some of the passersby were black.
“Several in the group picked up rocks and began throwing them at (the suspect) trying to keep him away from them as he advanced,” police wrote in a report.
One of the passersby slipped and fell, and that’s when the suspect allegedly beat him with the pipe.
The suspect fled after the victim was left unconscious and convulsing.
The suspect called police Thursday and said he acted in self-defense.
Police aren’t buying his account, noting in court papers that the man left the initial altercation and returned with a weapon.
“He then advanced on the group, trying to get the group to fight him by yelling things like, ‘Let’s go,’ and calling them racial slurs,” court papers said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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