Five Dead in Washington State Mass Stabbing

On February 24th, a 32-year-old man in Gig Harbor, Washington, killed four people with a knife before a sheriff’s deputy killed him. The slaughter occurred in the three-minute interval between a 911 call and the arrival of the first responder. Yet the tragedy began nearly an hour earlier when deputies realized a no-contact order against the suspect was technically void. It had not been served.

The administrative delay proved fatal. Officers had the document in hand at 8:40 am but left to deliver it in person to ensure its validity. While they were in transit, the suspect began his work. Witnesses reported the attack at 9:30 am. By the time the law arrived to “help,” the victims were already beyond it. Three died in a cul-de-sac; a fourth died in the hospital.

Protection orders are the blunt instruments of a domestic legal system that lacks teeth. In this case, the suspect’s mother had previously warned the courts of her son’s “witchcraft,” drug abuse, and threats that her grave was already dug. The court responded with a piece of paper. Such documents rely on the voluntary compliance of the irrational or the constant presence of the police. Neither was available on Tuesday.

America’s obsession with gun violence often obscures the grim efficiency of the blade. While politicians argue over calibres, the “mass stabbing” remains a stubborn, low-tech outlier in the national ledger of carnage. This incident will likely be filed under domestic failure rather than terror. It is a distinction that offers little comfort to the families in Pierce County.

The deputy who shot the suspect acted with necessary speed. But the system he represents moved with the sluggishness of a bureaucracy. When a person is determined to kill, a 1,000-foot stay-away order is merely a suggestion. The tragedy in Gig Harbor suggests that in the race between a process server and a predator, the predator usually wins.