SEATTLE — A soldier out with his friends was fatally stabbed on a Lakewood street early Saturday, and investigators were examining whether the attack was a racially motivated hate crime.
The 20-year-old was walking with two of his friends from Joint Base Lewis-McChord when a car drove by and someone inside shouted a racial comment toward the white soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said. The soldiers shouted something back, and the car stopped, and five black men got out and surrounded the soldiers, authorities said.
Police said the men from the car began to leave when one realized the soldiers were combat veterans, but one of the five appeared to bump into the victim as he walked past. As the car left, the soldier fell to the ground, and his friends discovered he had been stabbed.
The soldier died at the scene. Authorities declined to release his name until his family could be notified.