Seattle Center stabbing victim had protective order against suspect

SEATTLE – Court documents show that the man suspected of killing his son’s mother at Seattle Center on Friday told police he stabbed her to death because he thought it would be better in the long run for the 5-year-old.

The man was arrested after an armed bystander chased him down and kept him occupied until police arrived. He’s accused of killing 28-year-old Gabrielle Maria Garcia. Q13 News usually doesn’t name suspects until they’ve been formally charged by prosecutors.

According to court documents obtained by Q13:

Witnesses reported the suspect stabbed Garcia five or six times in the neck.

The man told detectives after he was arrested that he’d been having relationship problems with Garcia, who had an active order of protection against him. He said Garcia had brought too many men into the child’s life.

“(The suspect) believes that there is no way he will ever get custody of (the child), so essentially, he believed that Gabrielle dying was best for (the child),” court documents read. (The suspect) said that it is his belief that (the child) will go to into the custody of Gabrielle's brother after Gabrielle is dead and he is in jail.”

The suspect said he’d met up with Garcia and the boy at the Pacific Science Center with the goal of talking about their problems. He said things weren’t going well and he nearly decided to kill her on the upper floor of the Science Center, but they decided to go down and get some pizza instead.

They did so and eventually Garcia got up to go to the bathroom, and the suspect thought she might be going to call her lawyer. He decided to kill her, stabbing her in the throat multiple times.

“(The suspect) said (the boy) was sitting right there in clear view of what was transpiring,” according to court documents. “(He) acknowledged this may traumatize (the boy) if he remembers it, but he hopes he represses the memories.”

The man told police he’d been considering killing Garcia since April or May.