Welcome to Arrest Stories. A forty-two-year-old man has been charged with first-degree assault after allegedly attacking a seventy-five-year-old woman with a wooden board fitted with a screw in downtown Seattle. Here's what may have happened.
On December fifth, two thousand twenty-four, Fale Vaigalepa Pea was walking on the sidewalk of Third Avenue near James Street in Seattle, Washington. According to police reports, seventy-five-year-old Jeanette Marken was standing on a street corner waiting to cross at a downtown crosswalk when Pea approached her from behind.
Police say Pea was carrying a wooden board that had a screw protruding from the end. Witnesses reported that Pea used both hands to swing the makeshift weapon like a baseball bat, striking Marken in the face from behind. The impact gouged out Marken's eye, and she will not recover her eyesight in the affected eye according to court documents.
After the attack, Pea continued walking away from the scene. The entire incident was captured on video by the Seattle Police Real Time Crime Center, and a bystander also took a photograph of the suspect. Body-camera footage from responding officers shows that when police arrived, they immediately recognized the attacker.
One officer stated, "He's notorious for random assaults on Third Avenue. He's a regular. He usually punches. I guess today he decided to escalate from his usual."
Marken was hospitalized and required emergency surgery due to her severe facial injuries. Officers arrested Pea soon after the attack occurred on December fifth. On December ninth, prosecutors formally charged him with first-degree assault.
Court documents indicate that prosecutors requested bail be set at one million dollars, stating, "The defendant's egregious actions in this case, as well as his prior assaultive criminal history, demonstrate that he is a substantial danger to the community and is likely to commit a violent offense."
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.