Seattle police officers responding Thursday to a report of an injured man at a First Hill high-rise apartment building found a man and toddler dead and another man, a local physician, seriously injured.

Police said this morning that all three had been stabbed.

Officers have not said what they believed happened, but a department spokesman on Thursday said detectives did not believe there were any outstanding threats to the community. No arrests have been made.

The dead man was the 29-year-old longtime partner of the physician, a 39-year-old endocrinologist. The two had moved to Seattle in July from Durham, N.C., where they were living, according to address databases. This morning, police described them as family, saying the child, a boy not quite 3, was their adopted son.

In July, both men were listed as residents of the 17th-floor apartment at 910 Eighth Ave., but it appears the younger man had since moved out.

Police have not formally identified the men, and a department spokesman said detectives were still locating next of kin.

The physician was in serious condition Thursday night in the Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said. Police said this morning that his injuries do not appear life-threatening.

A woman called police after finding the two men, a law-enforcement source said. The woman, reached Thursday night, declined to comment except to say it was a "sad event" and that "a child's life has been lost."

Police and Seattle Fire Department medics were dispatched to the apartment at 10:12 a.m. The caller said the men "had wounds or cuts," Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said.

What officers found, according to law-enforcement sources, was a grisly crime scene with the two men in the blood-spattered living room. While searching the apartment, officers discovered the body of the child in a bathroom.

One of the men briefly regained consciousness and reportedly spoke to the officers, the sources said.

"It's just so horrific," said police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb. "The officers came here not expecting an incident of this magnitude."

Before moving to Seattle, records show, the two men lived together in Durham, N.C., where the physician was attending Duke University and working on a residency in endocrinology.

He was named a fellow of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Duke's medical school last year and, according to publications, had recently obtained a grant to study diabetes patients with gastric problems.

The physician and companion have also shared addresses in Chicago, where the doctor graduated from the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine in 2000, according to information published by the North Carolina Medical Board.

The physician obtained a license to practice medicine in Washington in January, according to state Department of Health records.

Dr. Mark Feinglos, the Duke University division chief, worked with the physician and oversaw his training during a three-year endocrinology fellowship, which the physician completed this spring.

"He was here and he was just outstanding. A really good guy," Feinglos said.

"I'm shocked by this news, really. It's just appalling."

Feinglos declined to otherwise talk about his former student except to say he was not aware of any problems in his personal life and that he had not heard from him since he left Duke in spring.

Feinglos did say the physician had come to Seattle for a job, but declined to say where.

In addition to Chicago, the physician has lived in California and Minnesota, where he owns a rental home.

Rick Jones, who lives down the hall from the men, said he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"We didn't have a lot of interaction; just a few conversations in the elevator was the extent of it," Jones said. "But nothing seemed weird."

Seattle Times staff reporters Amy Harris and Sara Jean Green and news researcher David Turim contributed to this report.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com