I won’t say that this couldn’t happen anywhere else because these days it probably could. Still, it’s not a shock that this happened in Seattle, a city that has been struggling with a revolving door on crime for many years.

In this particular case, the man’s name is Alexander Jay. In 2020 he was arrested for breaking into the home of an 89-year-old woman while she was home. Terrified, the woman begged Jay not to hurt her and then called neighbors who ran over to help. Jay attempted to flee but one of the neighbors held him at gunpoint until police arrived. He was convicted of residential burglary, criminal trespass and attempted assault. He had prior convictions for theft and domestic violence and wound up being sentenced to just 22 months. Jay was released from jail earlier this year and within two weeks he had been arrested again for two violent assaults on two different women.

On March 2, he was caught on surveillance camera assaulting Kim Hayes. Hayes is a trauma nurse at a Seattle medical center and was on her way to work just before noon. Jay was riding on the same train but they had no interaction. She was a complete stranger to him. As she walked up the stairs from the light rail stop to the street, Jay ran up an escalator and met her at the top of the stairs. He threw her down the stairs twice and kicked her. The attack left Hayes with three broken ribs and a broken clavicle. Needless to say she is traumatized by the experience.

After the attack, Jay continued on his way and about 30 minutes later was caught on video attacking another woman, another complete stranger who happened to be waiting at a bus stop. He came up behind the woman and in a matter of seconds had stabbed her 10 times.

Jay was arrested but was found not competent to stand trial. The court ordered he receive 90 days of mental health treatment so he could be ruled competent and face trial for the two attacks. But the state hasn’t managed to find him treatment so Jay has just been sitting in prison for 100 days. His public defender asked the judge to drop all the charges against him. She refused but did order the state to pay him $250 for every day they fail to get him in treatment.

Jay’s defense argued Thursday that his felony assault charges should be dismissed, a request that was denied by the judge.

But she ruled that Jay’s “due process rights have been violated,” ordering the state to pay him $250 each day that he is not admitted for restoration treatment. The payments have been backdated for 30 days.

Thanks goodness the judge didn’t release this violent nutcase. That may be partly due to Kim Hayes who attended the hearing and warned “I do feel if gets let out, he will kill someone.” She’s right. It’s a miracle he hasn’t already killed someone.

I understand the judge is trying to penalize the state so they’ll act and move this case along but why give $7,500 to Alexander Jay? Why not make the state pay and hold the money for his victims once he’s convicted? They certainly deserve it a hell of a lot more than he does.

It’s not like this is the only recent case where a deranged homeless person attacked a stranger in the street. In February I wrote about the female bartender whose face was slashed. It took police six weeks to find him and prosecutors asked for $75,000 bail but the judge released him without bail on a promise to return.

A week before that I wrote about another homeless man who struck a woman (a complete stranger) in the back of the head with a baseball bat.

Shocking video surveillance captured in Seattle this month shows an African-American male suspect swinging a bat at a woman’s head from behind.

Wantez Tulloss, a career criminal, has been charged. The woman is believed to be Asian. pic.twitter.com/yjulZqKVsK

— Asian Dawn (@AsianDawn4) February 8, 2022

Again, I’m not saying this couldn’t happen in other parts of the country but it sure happens a lot in Seattle.