Police: Lynnwood stabbing suspect says she’ll hurt or kill if released

EVERETT — A Lynnwood woman, who was upset that she had no place to live, allegedly told police she enjoyed stabbing the maintenance man at her sister’s apartment building.

The man, 52, suffered a collapsed lung and underwent surgery at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He has since been released from the hospital.

Prosecutors recently charged Lisa Louise Williams with first-degree assault for the unprovoked July 9 attack. She was being held on $500,000 bail.

Williams, 41, was wielding a kitchen knife when a man, his brother and his nephew raced to help the victim. One man tackled Williams and pinned her to the ground. His brother held her at gunpoint. The third man tended to the victim, applying pressure to a knife wound.

Williams told officers that she was crazy because she had just stabbed someone, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Edirin Okoloko wrote.

Later detectives interviewed Williams who said she’d been staying with her sister at the apartment complex after separating from her husband. Her sister reportedly kicked her out the day before. Williams told police she’d been wandering around all night and returned to her sister’s place to try to work things out. She didn’t persuade her sister to take her back in, Williams said.

“The defendant repeatedly stated that she was dead inside because she was homeless and that there was no one that could help her,” Okoloko wrote.

She told the detective she’d tried to get services in the past but to no avail. Williams said she wouldn’t need services now because she was going to jail, according to court papers. She allegedly told detectives she’d been thinking about hurting people all day, including killing children in the apartment complex pool.

She had taken the knife from her sister’s kitchen and attacked the victim while he was working in the maintenance closet. She tried to stab him a second time. He fought her off until the three men came to his aid after hearing the victim’s cries for help, Okoloko wrote.

Williams allegedly told the detective she shouldn’t be released from jail because she would hurt or kill someone else.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley

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