4 held after rampage through Lower Queen Anne

SEATTLE — Four young men were arrested and jailed Friday night after they allegedly went on a violent rampage in Lower Queen Anne and Belltown, attacking people, vandalizing a car and insulting at least one victim with racial epithets.

The first incident took place around 10:26 p.m. in a parking lot on First Avenue North across from KeyArena, where Seattle police said the men confronted two other men, slashed two tires of their car, smashed the windshield and damaged the hood, causing major damage. The victims fled in fear for their safety.

Minutes later, after leaving the scene in a sport-utility vehicle, the four men used the SUV to force a vehicle being driven by an African-American woman with her two children to pull over at First Avenue and Battery Street. The men pushed the woman and shouted at her, said police spokeswoman Reneé Witt.

A friend of the woman confronted the suspects, who knocked him to the ground, punched him, kicked him and shouted racial epithets, Witt reported.

The four men then drove off and struck another vehicle before they were stopped by police while stuck in traffic at Denny Way and Taylor Avenue North.

The men, three of them 24 year old and one 21, were booked into the King County Jail for investigation of malicious mischief, malicious harassment and assault, and hit and run. No other information about the men, including their race, was immediately available.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com