Employee stabbed inside Ballard bar

Geeky Swedes Ballard

A Matador employee was stabbed just before 11 p.m. Saturday inside the bar area of the Market St. restaurant, police and witnesses say.

The man, believed to be a bartender, was stabbed just above the kidney, police said. He was walking around after the incident and taken to the hospital, where he’s expected to be OK. It’s unclear what led up to the stabbing, but one witness told us the employee initially thought he was pushed by a patron, but he discovered that he had been stabbed.

The suspect escaped, and police called in a helicopter and K9 units to search for him. A short time later, police caught up with a man in the Office Max parking lot who witnesses say was with the suspect inside the bar. Police say he was uncooperative, and he was arrested for resisting officers. As of 1 a.m., police are still searching for the stabbing suspect.

Update: The Seattle Police blotter says the suspect “got into a verbal disturbance with the business manager. During this disturbance, the patron pulled out a knife and stabbed the manager in the back. The patron/suspect then fled from the scene and was not located.” The victim was treated at Harborview and released. (Thanks Silver for your help.)

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

39 thoughts to “Employee stabbed inside Ballard bar”

  2. Wow, Swedes, thanks for filling in the facts!

    It's interesting to look at what I was able to hear on the scanner, and how much was missing. Some of what I heard makes much more sense after reading your story!

  6. More like “old Ballard”. One of the locals who has been here since the 1940's told me that Ballard was really rough and full of gangs back in the 50's.

    None of the neighborhoods had this much violence when I was a kid in the 70's as has been in Seattle the last few years. It's not just a Ballard problem. Ok – White Center was pretty bad but I probably heard all about it because it was by where I lived – but I don't remember it being as bad as it is now. I don't know what is causing the new wave of crime in Seattle except I guess this is what happens when the population explodes (like in the early 90's) and then just keeps growing really fast.

  8. I'm envisioning that some where a few old timers heard about the stabbing and contentedly sighed, “Ah, that reminds me of the good old days!”

  11. I figure if their “name” is really just an all-caps version of what Bill the Cat might say, it's probably not worth reading the associated comment.

  12. ACTUALLY-

    This is due to the drug problem in Ballard. Attacker was a know drug dealer who didnt want to pay up his full bill.

    Not condos, not yuppies, not bars either. BLAME THE LACK OF DRUG ENFORCEMENT and the inability of SPD to take direction from witness. This guy is probably out of the state since they dont know north from south when it comes to 15th Ave.

  13. Ballard full of gangs in the 1950s? Yah, sure you betcha, we had roving gangs of Icelanders and Norwegians attacking each other with frozen herring. Not.
    I wasn't around in the 1940s, but my parents were…and the 1920s and 1930s as well. We have NEVER had this kind of crime. And I have 100 years of old Ballard newspapers to prove it.

    What they did have in the 1940s and 1950s were lots of “Single Room Occupancy” rooms down on Ballard Avenue for the mill workers and fishermen, and lots of taverns. So, while it might have been a rough area of Ballard, we didn't have the kind of crime we have today.

    What causes this sort of crime? When you move from a neighborhood business district to a destination drinking district, this is what you get.

  16. Cynic! Yaaaay congrats you're the first to “blame the police.” It's always the SPD's fault when people are violent towards each other. And wow…. “Attacker was a know drug dealer who didnt want to pay up his full bill.” Damn, do you ever have the info! Let me guess, known drug dealer because he's Hispanic right ? FOOL.

  17. Yeah, downtown Ballard was so much nicer before all these new drinking establishments went in like: the Sunset, the Tractor, Hattie's Hat, the Old Pequliar, Connor Byrne, Lock & Keel, Mike's Chili Parlor, the Bit Saloon. Too bad all those new taverns have shown up in the new Ballard in the last couple years.

    As for the gangs in the 50's – I wasn't even born yet. You'd have to take it up with the older butcher at QFC's meat department on 15th – if you can find out where he was transferred to when they closed. He told me all sorts of interesting stories of growing up here that are quite different from yours. Maybe he was lying? I really don't know.

  19. Let me clarify. I have a close connection to the witnesses and have heard more witnesses redition of what happened ANYONE who reads this. SO I thank you for your asinine comments.

    The police were called and took 20 minutes to respond to a call. Not blaming them, I'm sure they were busy. BUT the guy got away because it took that long.

    Not blaming the police, but just calling for more enforcement to get these guys off the street. THEY CAUSE PROBLEMS.

    The individual in question has been seen by me and my friends who are frequently in Ballard. Doesnt take much but some common sense to see who does what on the streets.

  20. My Grandmother owned a bar in Ballard in the 1950's (which was across the street from another bar) and my father owned a bar in late 70's early 80's. There has ALWAYS been bars in Ballard.
    My mom grew up in Ballard in the 50's and said that there were SO many kids in Ballard back in the day (at least a kid to every house) and that they ruled the streets on their bikes! Well at least they thought they did.

  21. DO be aware mom that in the places you name it was hard to find more than 5 people after about 7pm.

    Stories mom? I was at a wake a few years ago where an old Ballard boy was telling us all about how he went to such a rough school…Crown Hill Elementary. : 0

    The key of course is “story.”

  24. So, describe the guy. In detail. And a name.

    Seriously! If you have info on this violent person, info that could warn us away from contact with him, then you should tell us. And the police, of course.

  25. The Sunset was a Chinese restaurant. The Old Peculiar was the Valhalla…and it was empty after about 7 at night, when all the old fishermen went home. All those taverns you mention? Beside's Hattie's, most of those places showed up in the 1970s. We have always had bars here, though…but mostly taverns, that only sold beer and wine. (Oh, and Mike's has been around forever- my Dad used to stop by on the way home and get us chili.)

    I've lived here my entire life, as have my parents…and my mom's 87. I think you'll find that there are actually quite a few of us around the hood who have been here a while.

    The difference is that previously the neighborhood taverns catered to the fishermen and mill workers who worked and lived here…now it is a destination drinking area.

  26. Quite a narrow assumption on your part to believe that you heard more of the witnesses rendition of what happened then anyone else who reads this blog……. you never know who is on the other side of the computer. Haha, you'd be rather surprised, I believe. Especially since I know for a fact that it didn't take 20 minutes for SPD to arrive. Lots of different people read and participate in this blog, don't assume buddy.

  28. Jules, I don't really want to rehash the tired old “Old vs New” argument here, but you have to realize that EVERYWHERE has changed. You should broaden your horizons a bit and actually experience a bit of the world, heck even a bit of this country, and you'll realize that most places have changed dramatically over the past few decades.
    I'm not old enough to comment on the 50's or 60's or even the 70's, but I will say that I like the new Ballard more than the one I saw through the 80's and 90's. People take care of their yards now, there's things to do around here now, there's a vibrant downtown (even if you feel that you're priced out of it).
    Yes, it is getting a bit more crowded, some of the bar patrons on weekends are a bit annoying, but the crime that we're seeing is a city wide uptick as the police force hasn't kept pace with the population growth.
    I'll readily admit things have changed, a lot for the better, some for the worse, but it's not just your precious time capsule of Ballard, it's the whole world.

  29. In a tense situation seconds feel like minutes, and a couple minutes feel like 20.
    I'm always surprised that Downtown Ballard and Downtown Fremont don't have a few cops hanging around when the bars are full on the weekends. We all know that there are going to be a few troublemakers and d bags that can't handle their alcohol and having a couple cops around will do wonders in keeping things from escalating. How many drunks are likely to climb behind the wheel while the cop is watching? How many frat boys are going to take that first punch when the cop is right there?
    I know the Police are understaffed, but wouldn't it make sense to have a couple where the crimes are happening instead of where they aren't?

  30. Jules, your example is a perfect illustration of how PEOPLE change as much as the times change.

    When I first moved to Ballard one of my favorite haunts was Valhalla, I had just turned 21 and I can assure you that my friends and I stayed WELL past 7:00PM. Nowadays the OP is my favorite place to meet the wife for a beer after work. The funny thing is that now that we're “old” we seldom stay past 7:00PM. So who has changed more, me or the Valhalla?

  32. Interesting discussion. Here's my two bits: I moved here from a small midwest town. We had drugs, booze, and all the ingredients for bad things to happen. The big difference was that, there, if someone started trouble there'd be action on the part of the bystanders. If someone started getting belligerent or out of line there'd be at least 5-10 men step up and set the instigator straight. It seems like in Seattle everybody values their anynomity so much that not many people want to make a move to stop the trouble. And the cops (or lack of) get blamed. Not that either way is totally right, but its just an interesting difference.

  33. With a name like that, are you sure you didn't move here from Tibet?

    Anyway, it is an interesting perspective. And one that, as another transplant from the midwest (Michigan), I can back up.

    The “somebody else's problem” / “I don't want to get involved” thing seems to me like an extension of the legendary Seattle Freeze.

  35. I've always been surprised at that attitude around here as well. When somebody steps out of line around me I'm not shy about telling them so. Usually the bystanders are more shocked that I would tell someone off then about what the offender did.

  38. That's a really low thing to say to someone who knows what's going on in his own neighborhood. I am not a drug user or dealer and I can back Cynic up on this. I live more up towards Crown Hill (which isn't as nice or crime-free as other parts of Ballard) where these kind of people and craziness is just unavoidable. Up here on 85th and 15th, we have had stabbings, shootings, SWAT team incidents, registered sex offenders, White Supremacists, and East African – Somali drug dealers – I am familiar with this because I see it everyday from my home/business here…My guess is your are a spoiled, upper-income Condo-dwelling yuppie spared of these ugly things/people and laugh at anyone who brings you evidence to contradict the fairy land fantasy world you live in. If only we were all so lucky.

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