The First Hill man jailed and facing trial in the ax murder of a sleeping camper in February has been charged with the murder of a second homeless man 12 days earlier in a 12th Ave alley.
Liam Kryger is now facing two counts of first degree murder.
CHS was first to report police had linked the 25 year old to the additional killing.
Prosecutors say mobile phone and video evidence shows Kryger carrying an ax behind the office building of the Seattle Men’s Chorus where 68-year-old Paul Ewell was found murdered early on February 10th with injuries “created by a heavy sharp object similar to a hatchet, axe, or maul” indicating “there were at least three such strikes to his head,” according to the SPD report on the killing.
Prosecutors allege Kryger killed again less than two weeks later when he murdered 52-year-old Daravuth Van with an ax as he camped near First Hill’s Town Hall event venue.
Kryger pleaded not guilty in March to the charge of first degree murder for the Van killing.
His attorneys have also entered a not guilty plea in the Ewell case.
With the new charge, prosecutors moved to have the suspect’s $5 million bail dropped. Kryger is now held without bail.
“The memory of Paul Ewell and Daravuth Van points to something we can’t lose sight of: When we dehumanize unhoused people, the stakes are literally life and death,” a remembrance of Van and Ewell from the United Way King County reads.
Kryger’s path through the justice system will involve questions of mental health. Prosecutors say Kryger was previously arrested in 2018 for a violent burglary and stabbing in North Bend that placed him in a treatment program under supervision of the King County Mental Health Court. Kryger failed to attend a scheduled review hearing in late 2019 but managed to steer clear of the law until his arrest this winter.
Mental health competency procedures can take years to play out in the court system. In 2009, CHS reported on the long process that led to restored competency and a guilty plea in the 2007 murder of Capitol Hill resident Shannon Harps.
A judge says this photo taken by the Seattle Times did not violate a court-ordered prohibition on photographing the suspect because it was taken outside the courtroom
Kryger’s defense team has also attempted to limit media coverage of the case and allege the Seattle Times violated a court order by photographing Kryger at a recent appearance. The judge denied a requested hearing on the matter, saying the photo was taken outside the hearing and not subject to a restriction prohibiting media from “filming the Defendant’s face” in the courtroom.
Police, meanwhile, have investigated possible links to other cases in the area at the time.
The spree of violence took shape as SPD investigated a series of attacks targeting homeless victims sleeping outside in February including the two murders and an early February 24th assault that left a man in critical condition in Cal Anderson Park.
Police have not announced an arrest in that attack.
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I’m gutted to read that one of the men was Paul Ewell, the harmless, kindly, and very godly man who walked up and down 14th Avenue singing gospel in an incredibly beautiful, clear, and projected voice. (Those who don’t live in the neighborhood might know of him as the man who occasionally stands on the center line of 14th Avenue, his hands raised up to God, singing as cars pass on either side.) Paul was a completely harmless, kind, and talented—albeit eccentric—fixture in the community of Squire Park, and deserved so much better than the dehumanizing treatment from this serial killer. Even when my windows were closed, I could hear his gorgeous voice coming down 14th Avenue, several blocks before he reached my home. It was clear as a bell, and I always stopped my work to listen and watch for him coming down the sidewalk. I’m not religious, but I often thought he had the voice of an angel on earth. It hurts to think of him sleeping, vulnerable, and alone, when he was attacked by a man with an axe.
I truly hope his senseless death has one good outcome, and that’s to remind all of us that homeless people are human beings like us, people with personalities, needs, dreams, and loves.
This breaks my heart. He always brought a smile to my face when I lived in Squire Park.
Thank you for the context. I had no idea that the man my friends all know as “14th Avenue Jesus” was the other victim.
Yes, homeless people are people, I’m sorry that it took this tragedy and a loss of someone you had a connection with to learn this lesson. Please help spread this compassion far and wide, because our neighbors need to hear it!
That was unnecessarily condescending
Sorry, but I’m sick and tired of this type of compassion coming out for people experiencing homelessness only after it’s too late to do anything. These are our neighbors, often experiencing some of the lowest moments in their lives, and yet many people choose to ignore it and many people choose to kick them while they are down and denigrate them. It says a lot about our society by how we treat our most vulnerable…
What is a “homeless attack”? Sounds more like an ax murderer was charged with a second brutal murder of a man who was unhoused and vulnerable on First Hill in Seattle.
lol thanks for that stunning insight, Ms Pedantic
You can’t understand the endorphine rush some people get when typing things like this.