Seattle police are investigating a strange death in the University District after officers—along with seventeen fire department units—were called to the University District last night after receiving a report of a man on fire in alleyway near 11th Ave NE and NE 43rd.

Police say the man, who died at the scene, was in his twenties. The department isn’t releasing any other information about the incident, but SPD spokesman Sean Whitcomb says the death does not appear to be accidental or criminal.

Jonah Spangenthal-Lee: Proving you wrong since 1983.

26 replies on “Police Investigating Fiery University District Death”

  2. the thing thats confusing about this is that when i walked home last night, around 9:45, past the scene, one of the witnesses was talking about how her and her neighbors had heard an explosion. the initial news reports reported the same thing.

    im really curious as to how this could be considered intentional but not criminal, unless it was a suicide, but even that seems suspicious and weird.

    anyways. ~*welcome to the u district*~.

  3. We were talking about this in the elevator this morning.

    One presumes we had cameras somewhere, so there’s probably footage for the UWPD to look at.

  7. The Seattle Times piece on this incident says the vic appeared to be connected somehow to a fire on the third floor of the parking garage adjacent to where they found him…and that a battalion chief said the fire didn’t appear suspicious. I’m still scratching my head on that one.

  8. whoa, that is close to my house, surprised i didn’t hear the sirens…..at least there was a fire department approx block from the site.

  10. Yeah, I guess I read three possibilities —

    1) Accidental, criminal, from arson or drug processing
    2) Accidental, non-criminal, from poor handling of gasoline or other explosive material for some legal purpose (lawn mower? spare can for car?)
    3) Intentional, as in suicide or, if the vic was homeless, possibly he was set on fire by some frat boys

    So basically the only one that isn’t really very interesting is 2.

  11. I have a friend who is related to the first people on the scene. She says that she was told the person was already dead before the fire started, and that the person was dropped from the 3rd story of the parking garage with their legs tied together.

  14. @11: So is that 4th-hand information? How did the person know what happened? Did they get to the the alley and notice a tied up dead person and then the fire started in front of their eyes?

  16. So, should I point out that the UW Daily police beat covers the multiple fire settings recently? Could be self-inflicted by the arsonist – we don’t know yet. Only NCIS knows for sure, or CSI: Seattle. I’ll get Castle on it post haste.

  17. “the person was already dead before the fire started, and that the person was dropped from the 3rd story of the parking garage with their legs tied together.”

    Nothing sounds criminal or accidental about that.
    Who’s watching over these goofballs calling themselve the SPD?

  25. i walked past the scene just after it happened as the body was laying in the alley on flames. pretty gruesome sight. charred body was laying face-up with with arms out-stretched upwards. there was also a fire burning on the 3rd floor of the parking garage (apparently related). two citizens rushed up with fire extinguishers and doused the body until the flames were out but you could tell that the person was already deceased. fire department showed up a few minutes later but after a quick check by the first responders they put a sheet over the lifeless body as fellow fire fighters extinguished the fire on the 3rd floor of the parking garage. i assume a case of self-immolation. very sad way to go. may they now be at peace. blessings for their soul!

  26. You didn’t have to know the poor soul to know it was a suicide. It’s pretty easy to read between the lines of the police report.

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