One Man Killed After Homeless Crowd Attacks Couple At Seattle Encampment

A man was killed by an “angry group” of homeless people in Seattle after venturing to their encampment to retrieve items stolen from him during a burglary.

Seattle police responded to a hit and run call on July 27 “at a large tent encampment at Dexter Avenue North and Mercer Street,” according to KIRO 7 News.

A couple had driven to the South Lake Union homeless encampment in hopes of finding items stolen from them when their car was burglarized. The driver told police they were able to locate his shoes and a Bluetooth speaker that belonged to him. They had their 2 year old son in a car seat with them. 

The couple was “immediately attacked by several people in the group,” according to the police. Nearby surveillance footage showed the driver being hit in the back with a 5 foot wooden pole while another man “smashed the windows of the car with a machete”.

The report says that additional people joined with rocks and sticks and that a woman began fighting with the female passenger in the car.

The driver desperately tried to get away and wound up speeding through the crowd, killing a man who was part of the group attacking the car.

One man who attacked the car, Mario Miller, is a 12 time felon in Washington and California. Another, John Rosser IV, was a 9 time felon.

A nearby business owner said: “It was a car being attacked. Being surrounded by people from this encampment. And they were bashing the car to pieces with bars, sticks, whatever they had. Then the car made a run for it to break through this crowd. One of the guys who was surrounding the car got thrown up into the air and then run over by this vehicle.”

He continued: “Since Denny Park (encampment) closed down, these are the worst of these types of people. It’s almost the center of crime here.”