Seattle’s ‘Defund The Police, Send In Social Workers” idea is getting a workout, and so far, one social worker is dead. The Seattle Police Department reported that just before 11:00 am on November 23rd, 58-year-old Hans Dewey Van-Belkum took a large knife into the lower apartment complex and stabbed and killed 42-year-old social worker Kristin Benson.
When commenting on the case, the prosecutor called the attack “horrifying” and “terrifying.”
The Seattle Times reports that security footage showed the attacker walk into the building carrying grocery bags. He paused and then pulled a “large knife” out of one of the bags where it had been concealed.
Van-Belkum then walked right into the office of his social worker and case manager, Kristin Benson.
A nearby co-worker then heard Benson screaming and ran to investigate. The coworker recognized her co-worker’s attacker and later identified him for police.
She told the police that when she came in the room, Van-Belkum had Benson face down on the ground and was making “punching/stabbing” motions in her back.
Surprised at the interruption, Van-Belkum jumped up and chased the coworker down the hall towards her own office. Luckily for the unarmed woman, the security footage shows him falling during the chase, giving her time to get into her office and lock the door.
Van-Belkum pounded on the door, trying to batter it down to get to the coworker, but was unsuccessful. Frustrated in his attempts to attack the second woman, Van-Belkum reportedly went back to Benson.
In the charging documents, a Seattle detective wrote:
“The defendant then re-entered the victim’s office where he, at a minimum, plunged his knife into the victim’s back. “The murder of Ms. Benson was horrifying, an unarmed victim, trapped in her own office, unable to escape or fight back against the defendant’s rage and blade. Equally terrifying was the defendant’s willingness to violently attack others who came to Ms. Benson’s assistance.”
Out of people to attack, Van-Belkum tried to flee from the building. Before he got out the door, an apartment resident — a man — tried to stop Van-Belkum but was tackled to the ground. Another resident came up and pulled Van-Belkum off the pinned man and sent the attacker running out the door.
By the time the Seattle Police arrived, Van-Belkum was gone and Benson’s body was lying on her office floor with the murder weapon still in her back.
The autopsy showed she’d been stabbed 12 times, and the medical examiner’s report said that three of the wounds would have been fatal on their own.
Mentally Ill People Are Often Violent and Unstable
Seattle Police officers spotted Van-Belkum five hours later, still wearing the same outfit that was covered in Benson’s blood.
The police reported that Van-Belkum had mental health problems and possibly believed that Benson was involved in a plan to have him evicted from the building where he’d lived for eight years.
Van-Belhum is now facing charges for murder and second-degree assault.
Just months ago, Seattle City Councilmen were arguing fervently to send social workers instead of cops to 911 calls dealing with people who are mentally ill. This change would have allowed the city to help ‘defund the police’ — another loud cry from the leftists who run Seattle.
And it looks like they’ve gotten what they wish.
Earlier this month, Law Enforcement Today reported on the fall out of that decision:
“Nearly 120 officers have left the police force since the end of September. Most were patrol officers, and either retired or transferred to other agencies.
Seattle now maintains only 1,200 officers that are deployable for contingencies, the lowest number since 1990, when the city’s population was 516,000. Now the population has grown to 783,000, not to mention the explosion of the surrounding suburban areas increasing the number of citizens routinely inside the city limits.”
But after watching the security footage with just the first few seconds of the brutal attack on a public social worker, some folks in Seattle might have realized that they want to live in a more gun-friendly climate!
Or that instead of paying out lawsuits from the families of dead social workers, they might just want to fund the cops, after all!