Reward offered after fatal stabbing outside Burien bar

There was nothing fair about the fight: Two unarmed brothers were swarmed by a group of men outside a Burien bar at closing time.

The unprovoked attack lasted maybe five minutes: Punches were thrown, knives were plunged into bodies.

When it was over, 25-year-old Mark Ebinger was dead and his brother Peter, 24, was seriously wounded.

On Monday, 1 ½ months after the Nov. 12 fatal stabbing outside of Good Time Ernie's Sports Bar and Grill, Peter Ebinger spoke publicly for the first time since his brother's death.

"We were outnumbered and they had weapons. We weren't trying to fight — we were just trying to get away," Peter Ebinger said at a news conference in King County Sheriff Sue Rahr's office. "It all happened pretty fast. It's kind of a blur, even to me."

Jim Laing, a spokesman for Rahr, announced that a $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of Mark Ebinger's killer or killers. Detectives, who have no suspects and no leads, know only that the Ebinger brothers were surrounded by seven or eight men, Laing said.

Laing called the attack on the brothers "brutal and unprovoked."

Peter Ebinger said he and his brother often went to Good Time Ernie's, at 15747 Ambaum Blvd. S.W., on Wednesday nights to drink and play pool.

They were there with friends when one friend got into a brief argument with another man, Ebinger said. He said he came out of the bathroom just in time to see one friend "having words with one in their group."

"It was very brief. I just walked the other way," Ebinger said.

Since it was almost closing time, Ebinger said he and his brother went outside to smoke cigarettes before heading home.

They'd just gotten outside when a throng of men "came around from the other door," he said. "As soon as they walked out, knives were pulled, a bottle was thrown at us and they chased us."

He said one of the men "came up and got in my face." The man took a swing: "While I was dealing with him, I was hit from behind. I was stabbed six or seven times in the back," said Ebinger, who spent several days at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and is still healing from his wounds.

"I was pretty far away from my brother," he said. "It took five minutes, tops. From what I understand, it happened real fast and he didn't feel much pain."

Mark Ebinger was "a real outgoing guy, fun-loving and carefree" who was into weight lifting and martial arts, his brother said.

Tony Sakounthong, 20, met Mark Ebinger at a Burien martial-arts studio three weeks before the attack. Sakounthong was teaching Ebinger a style of kick-boxing called Muay Thai at a dojo about a half-mile from where Ebinger died.

"He learned more in three weeks than what some people would take six or seven months to learn. That's how good he was," Sakounthong said in a phone interview last month.

Ebinger was "180 pounds of all muscle," he said. "He was the most respectful, nicest guy anybody could meet."

Sakounthong said Ebinger easily could have taken on three unarmed men. But knives and numbers made all the difference.

"If it was a one-on-one fight or even a two-on-one, Mark would have won. Mark can take on three guys if they have no weapons," he said. "For Mark to die and his younger brother to get stabbed, it had to be a lot of guys."

Sakounthong, whose family is from Laos, said Ebinger was determined to learn Muay Thai, even though he couldn't speak the languages of the other fighters, most of whom are Asian.

"It's crazy, it's sad, so sad," Sakounthong said of Ebinger's death. "It's awful how you can work so hard and have it all taken from you by some chump on the street."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com