Marijuana debt prompted stabbing, police say

LYNNWOOD — A marijuana debt unpaid for more than four years appears to be behind an attack Sunday evening that ended with a 5-inch steak knife plunged into a man’s chest.

The incident unfolded just after 6 p.m. outside a restaurant in the 15100 block of Highway 99, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office report.

Witnesses said they saw the victim, 43, having an apparently amiable conversation with another man, who was described as wearing a suit and carrying a cane.

A short time later, the victim sought help. He’d been stabbed in the chest. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where doctors determined the knife had come close to piercing the man’s heart.

Deputies converged on the area, looking for the suspect. A man wearing a suit and carrying a cane was spotted about 7 p.m., a few blocks from where the attack occurred, walking along the highway.

Witnesses said the man in the suit was the person who had been talking with the stabbing victim.

The man in the suit, 43, of Edmonds, initially declined to speak with deputies. They spoke to people who said they saw him pull a knife, stab the victim and also strike him with the cane.

The man in the suit reportedly changed his mind, and asked to speak with detectives. After again being advised of his rights to remain silent and have a lawyer present during questioning, the man claimed he’d acted in self defense and that the victim had brought the knife.

Told there were witnesses who said otherwise, the man in the suit reportedly admitted he brought the knife with him and stabbed the victim.

“He stated he did intentionally stab the guy but was not trying to kill him,” sheriff’s detective Brad Pince said in his report.

The man in the suit reportedly said he was angry over a marijuana debt that had gone unpaid for four years. He was booked into the county jail in Everett for investigation of first-degree assault.

Scott North: 425-339-3431, north@heraldnet.com