The death of Tringo Ferede-Tesema in Kent last week was a “shockingly brazen” attack committed in front of her adult son and a passing letter carrier, who both watched her collapse in her driveway as she was repeatedly stabbed in the back, according to King County prosecutors.
Aregay Tesfamariam, Ferede-Tesema’s husband of more than 20 years, was charged Monday with premeditated first-degree murder, with prosecutors further alleging her death was a crime of domestic violence committed with a deadly weapon, charging papers say.
Tesfamariam, 50, was covered in blood and carrying a knife when he was arrested at gunpoint Wednesday afternoon around the block from the family’s home on South 207th Place, according to charging documents. His 51-year-old wife died a short time later at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, the charges say.
Tesfamariam remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail, jail records show.
The couple’s son was upstairs when he heard his mother’s screams and ran into the kitchen, where he found his father standing over Ferede-Tesema with a knife, the charges say. The son tried to intervene, grabbing at the knife and striking his father with a glass vase, say charging papers.
Tesfamariam chased Ferede-Tesema when she ran out the front door, and their son saw his father stab his mother in the back before she fell in the driveway, the charges say.
The son then followed his father and pointed him out to arriving Kent police officers, according to the charges.
A letter carrier who was in the area called 911 to report the stabbing, say the charges.
Kent police say Tesfamariam later told detectives he had long planned to kill his wife and used a ruse to get her to move closer to him in their kitchen, where he repeatedly stabbed her with a steak knife, the charges say. When that knife broke outside in the driveway, he continued his attack with a second knife, according to the charges.
Police said Tesfamariam complained that his wife treated him badly and told detectives his anger at Ferede-Tesema had built up over the years, say charging papers. Apparently there wasn’t any single event that triggered the attack:
“Tesfamariam admitted that he has, for some time, made plans in his head about killing his wife and then killing himself with knives,” charging papers say.
The charging documents also note that Ferede-Tesema was issued a domestic-violence protection order against her husband in 2004, but that order expired a year later. Court records don’t indicate that she ever sought to renew the order.
According to Ferede-Tesema’s petition for protection, Tesfamariam had previously threatened to kill her and then himself with knives.
“Sometimes he grabs my hair and hits my face. He kicks me. He has thrown coffee on me in the past. He threatens to kill me, our children and himself and I believe he is serious,” Ferede-Tesema wrote in February 2004. “I am very afraid he will kill me.”
