Man charged with murder in stabbing outside Seattle gas station

SEATTLE — Prosecutors on Friday charged a man with first-degree murder in a fatal Seattle stabbing, alleging there’s no “discernible reason” why the man chased the victim, a stranger, and stabbed him over a dozen times.

Sana Ceesay, 53, is accused of stabbing 45-year-old Fontaine D. Jackson Jr. to death outside a 76 gas station in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood early on the Fourth of July. Witnesses told police it didn’t appear the two men knew each other, according to probable cause documents.

Dispatchers received a call shortly after 3:30 a.m. Tuesday reporting the stabbing at the gas station, which sits at Broadway and East Pike Street. A witness pepper sprayed the suspect, later identified as Ceesay, and another witness followed him as he fled, according to court documents. Multiple people detained him near Boylston Avenue, the documents say.

Officers found Jackson suffering from stab wounds and aided him until Seattle Fire Department medics arrived, but he died shortly after, probable cause documents say.

Other officers took Ceesay into custody. The witness who chased Ceesay told police he hit Ceesay with a rock and alerted them about the knife Ceesay had dropped, documents say.

Ceesay was taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment and later questioned at Seattle police headquarters, where he told police Jackson had stolen his phone charger and had a knife, according to court documents.

The documents don’t say whether those claims are true.

Ceesay remains held in jail on $2 million bail.