Seattle, Washington

From the Seattle Times of October 8, 2006

Assault victim fatally shoots assailant outside Westlake Center

A bizarre case of what appeared to be justifiable homicide rattled the heart of Seattle's swanky downtown shopping district late Saturday morning.

Seattle police are still piecing together what happened, but this much is known: A young man was killed on the crowded sidewalk outside Westlake Center, and the confessed shooter was allowed to walk out of a police station.

The case, according to police and witnesses, began at 11 a.m. Saturday with a 911 call.

Witnesses reported a man in a yellow shirt acting erratically, insulting and threatening passing pedestrians at Pike Street and Boren Avenue near the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, said Seattle police spokeswoman Deb Brown.

A half-hour later, a man matching the same description was reported near Westlake Center. At the same time, a second man, described by witnesses as balding and wearing a leather jacket, was walking through the nearby plaza after finishing his lunch.

Neither man's identity was released by police on Saturday.

The man in the yellow shirt apparently focused in on the second man, saying, "I am going to kill you," Brown said. He then began punching and kicking the second man until the man fell to the sidewalk.

"He was down there, minding his own business. There is nothing to think he was anything but a random target," Brown said.

The victim happened to have a concealed-weapons permit, Brown said, and he was carrying a handgun. He pulled out the gun and fired once, hitting his attacker in the abdomen.

"It looked to me like he shot him in self-defense," said Linda Vu, who was across the street from the shooting, handing out fliers for political activist Lyndon LaRouche. "It's kind of crazy."

The man in the yellow shirt died after being taken to Harborview Medical Center. The King County Medical Examiner was trying to determine his identity, a task complicated by the fact that the man carried no identification.

Several nearby Seattle police officers heard the gunshot. When they arrived at the shooting scene, the victim, sitting on a streetside planter full of purple pansies, handed the gun to them and said, "I am the one who did this," according to Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel.

The man was arrested, but after questioning him and other witnesses, detectives determined they did not have probable cause to book him into the King County Jail. The man was released. Police said they were withholding his name as a crime victim — of the assault.

It will be up to the county prosecutor to determine whether the man will face charges. But Pugel said, "It could be considered justifiable homicide."

From the Seattle Times of October 11, 2006

Man fatally shot was "dangerous"

A man shot and killed Saturday after authorities say he attacked a stranger in Westlake Plaza was one of 70 dangerously mentally ill people in King County.

Since his release from prison four years ago, Daniel Culotti had been under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections (DOC) and Seattle Mental Health, according to the DOC. As with others who were ruled a Dangerous Mentally Ill Offender (DMIO) after their release from incarceration, the state earmarked $10,000 to pay for Culotti's housing, medications and therapy necessary for his first five years outside of prison.

The Department of Corrections said Culotti, 25, complied with his therapy. However, he failed two drug tests shortly after his release from prison in October 2002 and told his probation officer he had used crack cocaine regularly "to help ease the stress," according to a community custody report filed in King County Superior Court.

"Mr. Culotti also has mental health needs and his history shows that use of drugs can cause him to become psychotic," his caseworkers wrote.

Culotti was sentenced to prison after he assaulted his mother and burned down her Seattle home in 2001.

According to Seattle police, Culotti assaulted a man in Westlake Plaza shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday in what is believed to be an unprovoked attack.

The victim of the attack, identified by police as a 52-year-old man, pulled out a .357-caliber revolver and fired one round, striking Culotti in the abdomen. Culotti later died.

The 52-year-old had a concealed-weapons license and was in legal possession of the handgun, police said. He was questioned by police after the shooting and later released.

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