Background: A person winds up to strike Jeanette Marken in the face with a wooden board along Third Avenue outside the King County Courthouse in Seattle, Washington (KOMO/YouTube). Inset: Fale Pea (KOMO/YouTube).
A man in Seattle, Washington, swung a large board with a screw sticking out of it at a 75-year-old woman standing on the corner of a major downtown street, hitting her in the eye and partially blinding her, authorities say.
Fale Pea, 42, stands charged with first-degree assault with a deadly weapon causing bodily harm, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. He has pleaded not guilty.
The harrowing attack occurred on the late morning of Dec. 5 along Third Avenue outside the King County Courthouse in the Emerald City. Surveillance footage captured by local ABC affiliate KOMO showed Jeanette Marken standing on the corner — reportedly waiting to cross the street to pick up a food order.
Suddenly, a person alleged to be Pea walked up — a long wooden board in hand — drew back, and swung.
Marken”s right eye was struck and gouged out, according to the local outlet. Bystanders took photos of the suspect and then came to the victim’s defense. She was brought to a hospital, where doctors told her she will not recover eyesight in her right eye and that she may need more surgery.
Police arrested Pea nearby, with police body camera footage showing officers knew about the suspect from prior events.
“Who is this guy?” a paramedic asked the officer who was wearing the body camera.
“He’s a regular,” he responds. “He usually punches. I guess today he decided to escalate things way worse than his usual.”
The officer added that Pea frequents Third Avenue, with another cop saying, “He’s notorious for random assaults on Third,” per the video obtained by KOMO. The suspect has reportedly been convicted multiple times in the past for assault, including stabbing someone eight times at a party.
Court records show a competency hearing was initiated for Pea on Dec. 11. On Monday, a judge declared that he has been deemed fit to stand trial.
For Marken’s family, the violence on the street and the question of whether the attack could have been avoided loom large.
“To take a wood club with nails and just, no, I’m going to hit her with all the force on her face is like — that’s not someone you can recover or help,” Andrius Vyrikis, her son, told the local TV station. “I want someone to at least say to my mom, ‘hey, we’re working on this. We’re trying to fix this.'”
“What the h— is wrong with your system?” he asked.
Pea is jailed under a $1 million bond. His trial is expected to begin sometime early next year.
