Police seek 28-year-old man in fatal traffic circle beating

King County prosecutors have charged a 28-year-old man in connection with last week's beating death of a 60-year-old Rainier Beach man who was gardening inside a traffic circle in front of his house.

James "Jage" Paroline, 60, died Thursday, a day after the police say that Brian Brown punched him in the head during a dispute in the street. Police say that Brown struck Paroline while the Rainier Beach man was arguing with three teenage girls who were upset with him for blocking traffic while he gardened in the traffic circle.

Brown was charged today with second-degree murder. Police are looking for Brown and prosecutors have issued a warrant for $500,000. Brown has prior convictions for third-degree assault, drug possession and obstructing a law enforcement officer, theft and criminal trespassing.

Neighbors and police said that Paroline was gardening in the traffic circle at 61st Avenue South and South Cooper Street around 8 p.m. and had set up traffic cones to keep cars from driving over a garden hose. Three teenage girls in a car stopped and told him to remove the traffic cones, but Paroline refused, neighbors said.

A video of the attack, shot by a neighbor, showed Paroline attempting to ignore the girls until they threw water on him from water jug, according to charging papers. Police said the teenagers then removed the cones and Paroline sprayed them with water from the hose.

Several minutes later Brown pulled up in a car and punched Paroline.

The girls first told police that they didn't know the man who struck Paroline, according to charging papers. The girls later admitted that they knew Brown, who is the boyfriend of someone they know, charging papers say.

Brown pleaded guilty to assault in 2005 after police said he attacked a woman in her Renton apartment. The victim said that Brown choked and head-butted her, according to court charging papers.

Brown was sentenced to four months in jail for the attack.

Paroline's brother-in-law, Greg Goodwin, said today that his family is still struggling to understand why anyone would harm him.

Goodwin said that Paroline "had a connection" with the traffic circle because he lobbied to have it constructed after a car crashed into his house.

Paroline adopted the circle as an extension of his colorful yard — weeding, watering and tending to the purple, yellow and pink flowers that soon sprouted there.

His death has drawn the concern of hundreds of fellow Rainier Beach residents, many of whom plan to attend a community meeting Tuesday night to share their concerns about crime in the area.

Yolanda Gill, of the Rainier Beach Joint Block Watch, said that Paroline's death was the catalyst for the meeting at Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church.

"Folks want to come together and they want to come up with some solutions on how to curb crime," Gill said. "We are seeing gang activity, graffiti, incidents where people are mugged and a number of things."

Goodwin said that the slain man's relatives plan to attend the meeting.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com