Bellevue Police are investigating whether a downtown Safeway employee who reportedly stabbed an alleged shoplifter after chasing him out of the store acted in self-defense during a second altercation outside.
Police received back-to-back reports around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday of a stabbing near the intersection of Northeast Fourth Street and 106th Avenue Northeast and a Safeway employee covered in blood, according to a department news release.
Bellevue Police Ofc. Seth Tyler said a 37-year-old man tried to exit the Bellevue Way Safeway with a basket of liquor and other merchandise, but was confronted by the store employee. The alleged shoplifter struck the employee in the head with a bottle and ran from the store, he said.
The employee pursued the shoplifter to a nearby Bank of America parking lot, where another fight between the two men reportedly ensued. The employee pulled a folding knife from his pocket and stabbed the alleged shoplifter multiple times in his upper torso, Tyler said.
Tyler said witnesses were present at both altercations and have provided corroborating statements, including the employee who returned to Safeway. He sustained a cut to the face and was treated by medics at the scene, he said. The alleged shoplifter staggered into the roadway on Northeast Fourth and collapsed. He was transported to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Tyler said several pieces of merchandise found near the alleged shoplifter tied him to the reported Safeway theft.
Tyler said whether the Safeway employee was acting in self-defense will be discovered during the ongoing investigation, which includes viewing security footage from buildings the two men would have passed by during the chase and second altercation. Police will need to determine if any Bank of America cameras captured the altercation, he said.
“That’s going to all really depend on what happened in the parking lot of the Bank of America and that is definitely something that we’re looking into,” Tyler said of determining self-defense.
