Seattle man charged after allegedly pushing man toward oncoming train
King County prosecutors on Thursday charged a 26-year-old man with second-degree attempted murder, a week after investigators said he pushed a man into the path of an oncoming train at Seattle’s Northgate light rail station.
Prosecutors said Elisio Melendez “carefully timed” his attempt to push a man in front of a train on March 19 and had a clear goal “to inflict maximum harm,” according to a Thursday court filing.
Security footage captured at the train platform shortly before 5 p.m. March 19 appeared to show Melendez “sneaking” up behind a man who was looking at his phone while waiting for a northbound train, King County sheriff’s office investigators wrote Wednesday in a probable affidavit.
The footage showed Melendez looking several times at the man and in the direction an oncoming train would arrive from. As a train entered the station, Melendez appeared to push the man from behind, causing him to stumble close enough for one of his hands to touch the side of the train, according to the affidavit.
The man regained his balance and turned around to face Melendez, who allegedly pushed the man again toward the train before fleeing, the affidavit states.
Deputies responded to the station about 45 minutes later to a report of an attempted homicide. The man who was pushed described the suspect’s clothing to deputies and said the man had no expression on his face when he pushed him the second time, according to the affidavit.
Investigators reviewed security footage captured nearby, which appeared to show Melendez running toward a bus stop two blocks south of the train station. On Tuesday, a Seattle police officer notified investigators the bus stop is located around the corner from Cascade Hall, a 64-bed behavioral health treatment home operated by the county and state, court records show.
Detectives went to Cascade Hall that day and spoke to an assistant manager, who recognized the person in surveillance images as Melendez, one of the home’s residents. Deputies responded and arrested Melendez from the lobby, and later found clothing in his room matching those worn by the suspect, according to the affidavit.
When deputies asked Melendez about the March 19 incident, he said the suspect could have been someone who took his clothes, or a twin he doesn’t have, court records show.
Melendez was court-ordered to be committed to Western State Hospital, a psychiatric facility near Tacoma, in 2021 after he was found not competent to stand trial for stabbing his sister in the stomach two years prior.
He was released in 2022 after state officials determined he had reached a point in his treatment that he could be released to a “less restrictive alternative,” according to the prosecuting attorney’s office.
A King County Superior Court judge ordered Melendez be held on $750,000 bond in King County Jail. He will be arraigned Tuesday, according to court records and the King County prosecuting attorney’s office.