EVERETT — A stabbing at the Everett Transit Center on Tuesday appears to be unprovoked, leaving a man with life-threatening injuries. Everett police said it was apparent that the suspect suffers from a mental illness, according to court papers released Wednesday.
Steven Koropp allegedly said he stabbed the stranger because he saw the man watching a woman waiting for a bus. Detectives reported that Koropp, 25, said the voices in his head told him that the man was going to kidnap the woman.
He also allegedly said that he stabbed the victim because the man is black and he had been looking at a white woman, Everett police detective Maiya Atkins wrote in an affidavit.
“Mr. Koropp made additional racist statements along these lines,” she added.
Koropp, who lives in Everett, has been booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of attempted second-degree murder. “Mr. Koropp approached a complete stranger and began assaulting him unprovoked,” Atkins wrote.
The victim, 49, was stabbed in the neck multiple times and required emergency surgery. Police were told that he is expected to survive.
Koropp made a brief appearance Wednesday in Everett District Court. Bail was set at $1 million. His attorney told the judge that there are questions about whether her client can assist with his own defense.
The attack was reported just before 11 a.m. at the Transit Center on Smith Avenue. The victim was trying to escape his attacker when he encountered a Snohomish County sheriff’s transit deputy. The deputy applied pressure to the man’s wounds until paramedics arrived.
Witnesses told police that Koropp approached the victim at one of the bus bays and started punching him. The victim ran but Koropp allegedly chased after him. Witnesses told police that the suspect caught up with the victim and started stabbing him in the neck. The victim continued to run, trying to escape his attacker, until he finally reached the deputy.
Koropp was arrested without incident. He allegedly told police that he’d been trying to kill the man. A large, bloodied kitchen knife reportedly was found in his pants.
Koropp told police he became concerned that the victim was going to kidnap a woman, according to court papers. She got on a bus and left. He said he saw the man approach another white woman who was sitting with a group of people. He allegedly told police that he decided to stab the man before he had the opportunity to kidnap her, Atkins wrote.
Eventually the man requested an attorney. It was apparent to detectives that Koropp “suffered from some form of mental illness,” Atkins wrote.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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