Suspect in car crash has criminal history

The Edmonds man accused of causing a six-vehicle pileup on Aurora Avenue North on Wednesday was convicted three times in the past year for domestic-violence offenses and has a history of petty crime, once serving four months in jail for forging a $4 check.

Yesterday, King County District Court Judge Sue Noonan said she was granting a prosecutor's request to set bail at $750,000 because of the man's "extraordinarily dangerous conduct." He is being held in the King County Jail on suspicion of domestic-violence assault and three counts of vehicular assault, jail records show. Prosecutors have until Monday to charge him.

The Seattle Times usually does not name criminal suspects before charges are filed.

Just after 2 p.m. Wednesday, the 39-year-old man began chasing his 43-year-old ex-girlfriend as they both drove in separate pickups on Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline. The chase started near the intersection with South 185th Street and ended 10 blocks to the north with a multi-vehicle crash that sent the man's ex-girlfriend and three other drivers to area hospitals, said King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart.

During the chase, the man apparently pointed a BB rifle at his ex-girlfriend and used his vehicle to bump her vehicle, Urquhart said. He is accused of then forcing the woman's truck into oncoming traffic, setting off a chain-reaction wreck involving five other vehicles. Immediately after the crash, witnesses told investigators the man went up to the woman's vehicle and was screaming and swearing at her as she lay seriously injured in her mangled 1983 Ford pickup.

The ex-girlfriend, who is from Edmonds, and a 59-year-old Everett woman are both in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, a hospital spokeswoman said. Two men, a 43-year-old from Edmonds and a 21-year-old from Seattle, were treated and released Wednesday night from Northwest Hospital & Medical Center in North Seattle, a nursing supervisor said. A 78-year-old Edmonds man was treated at the scene.

King County prosecutors said at the man's bail hearing yesterday that he has had three domestic-violence convictions in the past year, all in Edmonds Municipal Court, and there have been at least 12 instances in which he has failed to appear in court.

In one of those instances, the court terminated a no-contact order that the man's ex-girlfriend had requested because she did not show up either, the records say.

The man and his ex-girlfriend were evicted from apartments at least twice — once in Bellevue and once in Seattle — because they didn't pay rent, court records show. The man also served four months in jail after writing a bad check to buy a drink at a Seattle restaurant.

Seattle Times reporter Christine Clarridge contributed to this report.

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