Bound and brutalized kidnapping victim seen climbing out of trunk of car wreck in Seattle

Police received multiple reports of a collision in the Ravenna neighborhood early Thursday morning after a vehicle careened into a residence in the 7200 block of 27th Avenue NE.

Seattle Police Officer Judinna Gulpan indicated that witnesses observed a man climbing out of the trunk of the vehicle, which suspects had driven into the home of Brooks Mierow.

Mierow noticed the wreck begin smoking shortly after the crash. Upon seeing the fire responsible for the smoke spread to his home, Mierow evacuated the location, reported KING-TV.

"I got my kids to get their shoes and coats on and get out of the house, I got the dog, and then fired another fire extinguisher into it," said Mierow.

The homeowner's fire retardant proved helpful, containing the flames until the Seattle Fire Department arrived on the scene and extinguished the blaze.

As the Mierows moved to get clear of an inferno firefighters ensured never came to be, they heard the anguished sounds of someone near or inside the wreck.

"Then we heard a screaming of ahh, ahh. I think he was trying to scream for help," neighbor Cheng Yu told KING.

Yu indicated that the accident had been heralded by "the most sickening crunch."

Raegan McKibbon, a local resident who saw two suspects bail out of the vehicle after the crash, helped the victim across the street and out of harm's way.

McKibbon noted that she found the victim "sitting outside, kind of by the trunk of his car, and he was all tied up with rope and he was screaming 'help me, help me, I've just been kidnapped, call 911.'"

"He was beat up pretty bad," said McKibbon. "They had cut his face with a knife and had beat him up pretty badly."

The 63-year-old victim indicated he had been assaulted by several suspects before being tied up and jammed into the trunk of his own car.

The victim was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and taken to Harborview Medical Center.

Police indicated that an 18-year-old male who matched the description of a possible suspect was detained, questioned, and released. There have yet to be any arrests.

"You can't make this stuff up, it's so absurd," said Yu.

According to police, as of February 28, the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle had so far this year already seen three rapes, five robberies, 13 aggravated assaults, 54 burglaries, and 42 motor vehicle thefts.

Seattle, more broadly, has seen 710 violent crimes in the first two months of 2023, including eight homicides and 54 rapes, along with 233 robberies and 1,134 motor vehicle thefts.

Neighborhood Scout ranks Democrat-run Seattle as among the unsafest cities in the U.S., scoring it a 1 out of 100 (100 being safest) on its crime index.

The city saw its highest violent crime rate in 15 years in 2022, reported the Seattle Times. Compounding the problem is policing manpower. The Seattle Police Department has lost around 525 officers since 2020, when the City Council decided to drastically slash the police budget.

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