3 stabbed at random in Seattle

SEATTLE  — Three people were stabbed at random in downtown Seattle, and a suspect is in custody, authorities said.

Seattle police responded to a call about 10 a.m. Tuesday. Police said in a blotter post that a 79-year-old man who was stabbed in the neck and a 77-year-old man who was stabbed in the back were taken to Harborview Medical Center. Hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg, who updated the older man’s age, said at 5 p.m. Tuesday that he was in serious condition while the other man was satisfactory.

Another man was stabbed in the forearm and treated at the scene, police said.

Christopher Morisette, 29, was arrested a couple blocks away, according to police. Officers recovered a knife he had discarded in the back of a package delivery truck as well as his clothes, which he removed as he fled, police said.

“We do believe this was an unprovoked, random attack,” said Seattle police Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, spokesman for the department.

Police booked Morisette into jail for investigation of assault and a state Department of Corrections violation.

Morisette has spent time at the state’s largest psychiatric hospital and was sentenced to 45 days in jail after a December attack on a woman at another mental health facility, KIRO-TV reported .

James Sido, a spokesman for the Downtown Seattle Association, said in a statement that “everyone deserves to feel safe in the heart of our city, and we clearly have more work to do to make that a reality.”