Police: Man used broken beer bottle to injure U District partygoers

Authorities say a 21-year-old Seattle man slashed another man with a broken beer bottle during a brawl that spilled from a University District house party and into the street early Saturday.

According to the probable-cause document released Monday, police say the man was partying at a house near Northeast 55th Street and 12th Avenue Northeast when he attempted to talk a woman there into having sex with him.

After the woman declined, a second man at the party tried to intervene on the woman's behalf, the document says.

The man "became enraged, grabbed a beer bottle and broke the end of it by smashing it against a table," the affidavit says.

He then began waving the bottle, according to the affidavit, cutting a three-inch gash in the man's arm and causing a minor laceration on the woman's palm.

When the man allegedly ran from the party, a group of people chased after him.

Seattle police officers arrived soon after, shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday in the 5500 block of University Way Northeast, to reports of "a large fight disturbance" in the street.

After talking with witnesses, officers checked the man's hands, finding them bloodied with superficial cuts, the affidavit said, and both victims and others also identified him as the assailant.

While officers were on the scene, police say another young man threw a beer bottle at bicycle officers. The bottle smashed in the street. After a brief foot chase, the man believed to have thrown the bottle was arrested for obstructing a police officer.

The man has been held without bail in the King County Jail since early Saturday, jail records show.

Prosecutors have until Wednesday to file charges against him, said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.

Lewis Kamb: 206-464-2341 or lkamb@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published June 16, 2009, was corrected June 18, 2009. An earlier version of this story named a suspect in the case. However, the man has not been formally charged with a crime and his name has been removed. We regret the error.