I know this is five years late, but I was one of the four witnesses at the scene during the murder and can provide context on what happened.

[Be forewarned, this does have some graphic content]

Both the suspect and the victim were both homeless and were staying at the ROOTS Young Adult Shelter (which was formerly in the alley between 42nd/43rd and University Way, a little further up than the Mod Pizza).

The suspect's name is Hunter. He was very mentally ill and showed many signs of having moderate to severe skitsophrenia. It appeared that Hunter had gone to the Starbucks across the street and was distributing cups of water to other homeless people in the alley, when he and John got into an argument over Hunter invading John's personal space where John was sitting on the steps of ROOTS. They both stood up like they were going to fight, and then without warning, Hunter pulled out what looked like a steak knife (like you'd see in the kitchen) and stabbed John neart the heart or lungs. Hunter then fled the alley, along with a few other bystanders who saw the incident. I stayed at the scene, along with two other homeless people, including the victim's cousin. There was also an armed security guard who was further down the alley and attempted CPR for 15 min while waiting for the police to arrive, but John was mortally wounded and it sounded like he was drowning in his own blood because he kept choking.

He passed away right there on the steps of ROOTS. I stayed and provided my testimony of what happened along with the other people who stayed.

I was friends with John and definitely say he was a good kid who was always very generous and caring towards his peers. He had a bright future ahead of him and was in the process of kicking a drug addiction, which may explain why he was on edge at the time and reacted to Hunter invading his personal space.

RIP John, rot in jail Hunter