Seattle Council Candidate Backs Off False Homeless Murder Story

SEATTLE, WA - One of the leading candidates in the District 2 Council race in south Seattle is backing off a controversial social media post he shared over the weekend. The post described a gruesome murder at a homeless camp in North Beacon Hill — but the tale turned out to be only partially true.

Ari Hoffman said on Tuesday that he "should have verified the facts before sharing" the post published by the group Safe Seattle, which has a reputation for amplifying crime associated with homelessness. But he isn't denouncing Safe Seattle, saying that the group is "generally a reliable source of information" and has helped him in the past.

On Saturday, a post appeared on the Safe Seattle Facebook page alleging that Seattle police were covering up a grisly murder that happened behind the QFC along Rainier Avenue. The post, credited to an anonymous tipster, said that the victim was beheaded, that the murder was possibly "drug-related," and the murderer was "on the loose in another camp I’m sure."

On Monday, Seattle police confirmed that a body was found in the vicinity of the QFC on Feb. 16 (a few blocks east of the location mentioned in the Facebook post), but the person did not die of homicide. The King County Medical Examiner determines if a person dies by homicide, but has not in this instance. Autopsy reports are confidential unless a family member agrees to release the information, so the details may never be public.

Hoffman denied being the person who gave the false information to Safe Seattle. He also said he doesn't know the identity of the person who did. He said he spoke to David Preston, Safe Seattle's most visible member, over the weekend only to obtain the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) number for the incident, he said.

"My mistake was not doing that before I shared the post," he said.

Hoffman said he got to know people involved with Safe Seattle last spring, when groups of homeless people started hanging around two North Seattle Jewish cemeteries, Bikur Cholim and the Sephardic Historical Cemetery. Hoffman said he has contributed posts to the Safe Seattle Facebook page, and reads it regularly.

"Safe Seattle was one of the first in Seattle to bring awareness to the desecration and vandalism of the Jewish Cemeteries in Seattle," he wrote in an email to Patch on Tuesday. "They were interested in talking even though many others were not including the majority of Seattle City Council Members who ignored my community."

He says he grew up in a family that took in a homeless person, and that he works to raise money for the Millionair Club. But by sticking with Safe Seattle, Hoffman is sending a signal about where he stands on homelessness.

Safe Seattle opposes many ideas for stop-gap housing and drug addiction. The group claims to provide solutions to end homelessness, but also dishes out plenty of gore and ridicule. On Sunday, the group posted a video of a woman in crisis behind the Lake City Value Village.

"Clearly messed up on drugs, she was pacing and gesturing like this for maybe ten minutes, but she was almost totally silent the whole time, and that made it even creepier," the person who took the video, only identified as "Jen," wrote.

The group rose to prominence in 2016 when it posted a map of where homeless people live in Seattle, which was criticized for exposing homeless people to violence. And when local reporters need a quote critiquing homelessness policy, Safe Seattle members are a go-to.

Hoffman has raised the most money in the District 2 race, according to campaign finance filings. He's running to replace the relatively moderate Council President Bruce Harrell against more progressive candidates like Tammy Morales and Chris Peguero. Hoffman noted that people think he's a Donald Trump supporter, but he said he voted for neither Hillary Clinton nor Trump in 2016.

Does he think associating himself with Safe Seattle will help or hurt in District 2?

"I don't that's a fair question," he says. "The association of Safe Seattle is however you want to portray it ... people will associate me with whomever they want."