Images from Wood’s social media
The King County Medical Examiner has identified the man found murdered off E Olive Way behind the Broadway Rite Aid early Thursday morning. Investigators say the victim was beaten to death.
The victim has been identified as Brent Wood, 31. According to police reports and court records, Wood did not have a permanent address but received mail at a Compass Housing Alliance facility in Pioneer Square. UPDATE: Friends tell CHS Wood was an artist and is being mourned by many in the Capitol Hill community including the small businesses where he would do odd jobs and the fellow artists who got to know him.
Wood had an “unwavering artistic view of the world around” and “immediate compassion and love for everyone he met,” Naith, a Capitol Hill talent buyer and owner of Bitchin Sits Pet Service tells CHS.
“He often would be selling his art to support himself and was actively trying to get off the street,” Naith said.
Wood would also find work doing at neighborhood businesses including Twice Sold Tales.
“He was troubled but by no means a hardened criminal,” Naith said.
Life on the streets put Wood in regular contact with law enforcement including in 2018 when he was busted for sleeping in the Seattle Central parking garage off Harvard and Pine. Wood admitted to an officer he was in possession of methamphetamine and was eventually convicted and sentenced to 45 days in King County Jail plus 48 day credit for time served.
In the charges against him, prosecutors complained that Wood was “unlikely to appear in court in response to a summons” and had accrued multiple “warrants for his arrest issued as a result of his failure to appear on various misdemeanor criminal charges.”
A recent warrant for Wood was issued over failure to appear on a theft charge stemming from an incident at a downtown Bartell’s in which police say Wood was chased down with a stolen case of beer.
(Image: Google)
While many struggling with homelessness, mental health issues, and addiction on the streets of Seattle came here from somewhere else, Wood had local roots. Wood registered to vote as an 18-year-old in Kenmore.
CHS reported here on Thursday morning’s murder investigation as Wood was found dead in a pool of blood near the dumpsters behind the Broadway drugstore. According to the medical investigation, Wood was beaten to death and died of multiple blunt force injuries to the head.
Police were collecting evidence including locating security cameras near where Wood was found and also asked for help from the public. Anyone with information is asked to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000.
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Brent was an artist struggling with mental illness and drug addiction. He was far from your hardened criminal. He was searching through his struggles for a place he fit in. I didn’t always see eye to eye with his point of view but he was by nature a good person. As his family and friends before his life on the streets are slowly finding out about what happened I just want to take this moment to acknowledge his artistic and caring nature. Love those you know who are struggling with addiction and or mental illness.
Thank you. Condolences
“While many struggling with homelessness, mental health issues, and addiction on the streets of Seattle came here from somewhere else, Wood had local roots.”
Do you have some evidence to back this up? The stats from most homelessness organizations dispute this claim. If you’re going to pass this site off as news you should make some attempts to report facts and not just reactionary talking points.
Yes my cousin had local roots.
What a hostile, disingenuous comment! You ask for more information while simultaneously slinging mud at this valuable site by asserting that this information doesn’t exist.
But the idea that many folks on the street came from elsewhere is hardly controversial. Seattle is a growing city that attracts people from all over the region for a variety of reasons. I don’t see what there is to dispute this or what you gain by doing so other than providing a phantom justification for your accusations.
While the statement is probably factually true that “many” are from somewhere else, MOST are from the region. Stating that many are from elsewhere, in contrast to this person (RIP, Brent Wood) having local roots can be seen to imply local homelessness is a problem because of “others” not from “around here”, so yes, saying “folks on the street came from elsewhere” is indeed controversial. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/do-homeless-people-come-to-seattle-for-help/
Claims that the homeless population is largely from around here will often cite self-reported data that the homeless have been in Seattle for six or more months. When this piece states that “many” are from around here, that isn’t a bold claim. “Many” isn’t an objective claim that begs for someone to Google anything.
That’s what you showed up to say? That.
Was the sentence “He registered to vote as an 18-year-old in Kenmore” added later, or is reading comprehension the problem?
Lol, you know 3 of 10 people in Seattle were born on Washington? What a jerk.
There is a lot of power in an apology. You might consider offering one for the ignorance of your statement.
He was from Kenmore.
This is a “sanctuary state”. Would you rather get caught in TX or Seattle? A lot of cities relocate their homeless, Vegas is a good example.
Brent once gave me a free haircut and obtained an over the counter medication I needed to treat a nearly full body ringworm infection I was battling and would not have been able to get rid it wasn’t for him. Doctors Kept incorrectly diagnosing it as scabies and as psoriasis so I couldn’t get the prescription I needed. Over the counter was my only option to treat my ringworm and because of how extensive my ringworm was, it required many bottles of the medication to successfully eradicate it.
Brent helped me when nobody else would. I was too afraid to steal the medication myself and end up in jail.
He was also a loved son, brother, nephew, and cousin.
Condolences to you and your family JTLee. This is so horrible and your immediate grief is likely sitting on top of your grief over his life circumstances.
I’m very sorry for your loss. It’s just terrible especially when the loved one is so young.
One murder this year in Seattle was too many. What’s gonna happen as the warm weather moves in and the Hill gets wild for summer?
Face it, U.S. culture and mindset does not care about minimizing socioeconomic inequality or stopping citizens’ exclusion from society, which occurs & accrues through an individual’s lifetime.
Photo of Kroyers Plads in Copenhagen, one of many shelters for houseless ppl, staffed up with an army of city workers/social workers.The building won all kinds of architecture awards and brings tourists and admirers to the city. 45 percent of rentals in that country are for low income/special needs people.
That’s a pretty bold lie…. Kroyers Plads in Copenhagen is high end apartments and boutique shops/restaurants. It’s not a shelter…
Bus tickets back to community of origin and support to rebuild the bridges they burned along with the meth and fentanyl would be a lot cheaper and more effective. The current plan of concentrating services in Seattle and essentially enabling people to overdose isn’t working and isn’t compassionate. It also encourages more to come live in the park, do drugs, and die. This sad story of a local young man is the exception not the rule. I would like to see a journalist look into each of these stories and document how and when they came to Seattle. My observation is that the vast majority are people that came to Seattle homeless and drug addicted from other parts of the country. The last administration estimated it at 60%. I suspect it is much higher. The “statistics” cited are bs. I don’t believe self-reporting by drug addicts and I don’t believe the homeless service industry that has an incentive to cover up the truth, because otherwise their affordable-housing narrative (homelessness is a result of lack of housing not drugs) would collapse and compassion fatigue would set in.
Wow. While you are correct about a few things, you sound woefully ignorant, angry and subjective about a lot of other stuff “Reality”. Yes, there is a ridiculously entrenched and political homelessness industry here. However, violence toward people unhoused is far from an exception. And, real humans with hearts and souls understand that a) the first thing an unhoused person needs is adequate shelter and basic living facilities. Then, attempts at treatments can begin and b) sending people back to their ‘community of origin’ is a statement so beyond absurd. Some people left their place ‘of origin’ because they were abused there or they got into abusing there. There’s so much more I have neither the time nor energy to go into. Just, maybe get some more info before vomiting a slanted agenda that you may or may not think is well-meaning.
More to the the point, why is almost everyone on this post behaving like disrespectful infants, bickering back and forth when the two big issues are largely being ignored.
1) Brent Wood mattered and he was brutally beaten by lord-knows-who. We should all be demanding the murder be found and put to justice.
2) A horrific crime just occurred in the heart of our community on CH (4 blocks from where I live ). AGAIN. We need to demand a constant public safety presence and -yup, I’m saying it- more CCTV cameras. Otherwise, the safety that most of Seattleites have taken for granted for the past 10-20 years? Say bye-bye to it.
And, there’s nothing not-Progressive about that, either. We often confuse ‘backward’ (just letting innocent victims be murdered and attacked) with Progressivism around here these days. Are we enjoying our retro return to the crime of the 1990s/1980s/1970s? THAT BS is the definition of regression.
Have we really become THIS numb to brutal, horrific crimes and deaths that happen in our city on the daily now? If so, Seattle has gained a bunch of rich folks, lost its soul and brains where they matter most. C’mon folks. Be more thoughtful and less stupid. ;-)
Condolences to all who knew and care about Brent. Just awful.
And unacceptable.
PS- clearly, the way we use laws, armed officers and ‘typical’ city courts to address people just trying to survive -in whatever flawed manners) as criminals is broken. Clearly, we need a whole new system. And, sadly, clearly, our city council and mayor are not and have not been up to the task to get it done. Maybe this new homelessness czar will get anything to happen differently. City Hall is obviously largely inept and politically entrenched, when it comes to wholesale change for the better and more effective.
I remember you and care about you. You were the sweetest soul. You deserved better. Rest easy Brent.
No matter what his status was in regards to housing. No one deserves to be beaten to death and left like they were trash by the dumpsters. Whoever did this is a person with serious anger and needs to be caught before they harm someone else.
I went to school with Brent in Lake Stevens. We lost contact years ago when I moved away but I never forgot him and I will never forget him. He didn’t deserve this. I am so sad for his loved ones. My heart goes out to you all.
I am shocked and disgusted by this news and by this story. I have never seen a person’s criminal history included like this. Between that and the obvious and unnecessary opinion on the homeless population, this piece seems very disrespectful to my deceased friend. I submit that an edit is due. Seriously. Will submit by other means…
Reporting on any death is some of the most serious, deeply contemplated work we do on CHS. I included the details of his criminal record to provide what information I could about Brent Wood and his life here on Capitol Hill. Both of the cases I included are, I believe, useful in understanding. I’m very thankful for those who have reached out who could tell us more and speak about the person. In the drug possession case, Wood’s life was turned upside down because of his run-in with the law while trying to sleep unsheltered here on Capitol Hill and because he spoke with a police officer and, they said, admitted he was carrying. In the beer theft example, I included it because it is illustrative of ongoing, difficult to recover from cycle related to failure to appear warrants. Finally, I am not responding to this because I am shocked that you are shocked, etc. I expected criticism of this kind of reporting because it can look like “something KOMO would do.” I still believe in the value of the reporting I included and believe it fits into this story of Wood’s life and death that I was trying to tell.
If that is the story that you would write if it was one of yours, then fine. I doubt that. That your remarks provoked counter remarks was a foreseeable consequence that illustrates why it was in poor taste. His life story had little to do with his death. And for whatever connection there might have been, that part of the story has yet to be told.
Perhaps his story is deserving of more than one report. I submit that his life was not deserving of summary judgment to be tagged on to the report of how it ended.
Please always tell the truth. Don’t filter it because it might not fit someone’s world view or preferred narrative. Thanks for the work you do.
Maybe change your “technique”…so that you can include a full picture of the person. Reaching out to people that knew him (including relatives/family?) would have provided a more complete narrative…if you’re truly reporting on the person…and not just the crime. If you’re reporting on the crime, the “personal” stuff (which all turned out to be pretty negative…due to the limited research you did) didn’t need to be included…right?
You can tell the truth (which you should), but still be compassionate in how you do it…
Sympathies to the victim and his family. Regarding the reporting, the details provided are relevant to the circumstances of death. It is reasonable to conclude that a person with multiple arrests for possession of narcotics and theft is more at risk for the kind of deadly assault suffered by the victim here. Sad to say, but those kind of events often place a person at greater risk of physical harm in the future. Reporting on the victim’s past was, in my opinion, reasonable in this case.
He’s my brother R.i.p
I’m SO SORRY :'(
Brent did not deserve this he was harmless and a good person he used to tell me about the book lady that helped him out every so often he would find an old book and he would tell me about her buying old books from him he says she was a awesome person I know she did not need these books she I think he said it was a she was doing this out of the kindness of there heart Brent
also dug old costumes jewelry which he would do art stuff with yes I hope they catch the POS who did this to him and fry who ever did this to him like I said Brent did not deserve any of this to the piece of shit that did this pick on someone who can wreck your day your a punk POS and I hope they catch your defeated pussy ass monster ass you want to take your latent tendencies out on me bring it you fuck. I will give you exactly what you gave Brent I’m easy to find in fact I will be up by some trash cans every night till you do find me you pussy murdering ass hole you ain’t shit.
@Chris Hughes
Did the killer find you? I hope so, but only if you made good on your proposed solution. Otherwise, I wonder if anyone knows of any news on this or the other recent murders on the hill. Necia “Q” McKendrick was a friend of Brent’s, also beaten to death less than a year before. In fact, I believe that Brent was one of the last that saw Q before she disappeared.
It should concern everyone that there are these violent killers out there… perhaps one per victim… the police have not found evidence that connects any of these cases. These are the violent animals that need to be locked away so that the rest of us can feel like we are safe.
Don’t know if these comments make noise in your inbox or not.
Brent Wood was a regular character in the gay community and spread his own brand of happiness to all he encountered. Bringing him in often during last winter to the club or home for shelter I was blessed to have known him. So many precious people have only just begun to cut their claws in the world, only to find an abrupt, early end. It’s beyond sad.