Teh One Who Knocks
09-10-2013, 12:00 PM
BY LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
A Kent man described by police as a self-professed “Juggalo” has been charged with assault following allegations he stabbed a 14-year-old boy.
King County prosecutors contend James A. Sweet stabbed the boy in the stomach during a birthday party at an Enumclaw home. The boy apparently lightly taunted Sweet, 21, shortly before the stabbing.
Describing the Aug. 24 stabbing, a King County Sheriff’s Office detective said the 14-year-old was feeding a campfire at a party in the 19100 block of Southeast 408th Street when Sweet criticized the boy’s fire. The boy told Sweet the fire would be bigger if he tossed Sweet into it – a joke, according to charging papers – which prompted an angry response from Sweet.
Having attended the party to impress the parents of a young woman related to the boy, Sweet drank a beer and smoked some marijuana before approaching the teen again, the detective told the court.
“Sweet told (the boy) that he should not mess with a Juggalo,” the detective said in court papers. The boy “responded jokingly, ‘You mean those guys that wear makeup?”
Investigators note Sweet has a tattoo on his forearm of a “Juggalo hatchetman” icon.
Regarded by police as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang,” Juggalos take their name from the Insane Clown Posse, a clown-themed rap-rock band. The most recent national gang assessment released by the FBI asserts the gang is rapidly expanding; most states do not recognize the group as a gang, in part because many self-professed Juggalos are simply fans of the music and the culture surrounding it.
Apparently outraged, Sweet went to his backpack, drew a knife and stabbed the boy in the side of the chest, the detective told the court. Sweet then fled the area, and the boy was rushed to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.
Writing the court, Deputy Prosecutor Candice Duelos said the boy remained hospitalized for four days with a lacerated liver.
Sweet was arrested four days after the attack. He remains jailed on $250,000 bail.
A Kent man described by police as a self-professed “Juggalo” has been charged with assault following allegations he stabbed a 14-year-old boy.
King County prosecutors contend James A. Sweet stabbed the boy in the stomach during a birthday party at an Enumclaw home. The boy apparently lightly taunted Sweet, 21, shortly before the stabbing.
Describing the Aug. 24 stabbing, a King County Sheriff’s Office detective said the 14-year-old was feeding a campfire at a party in the 19100 block of Southeast 408th Street when Sweet criticized the boy’s fire. The boy told Sweet the fire would be bigger if he tossed Sweet into it – a joke, according to charging papers – which prompted an angry response from Sweet.
Having attended the party to impress the parents of a young woman related to the boy, Sweet drank a beer and smoked some marijuana before approaching the teen again, the detective told the court.
“Sweet told (the boy) that he should not mess with a Juggalo,” the detective said in court papers. The boy “responded jokingly, ‘You mean those guys that wear makeup?”
Investigators note Sweet has a tattoo on his forearm of a “Juggalo hatchetman” icon.
Regarded by police as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang,” Juggalos take their name from the Insane Clown Posse, a clown-themed rap-rock band. The most recent national gang assessment released by the FBI asserts the gang is rapidly expanding; most states do not recognize the group as a gang, in part because many self-professed Juggalos are simply fans of the music and the culture surrounding it.
Apparently outraged, Sweet went to his backpack, drew a knife and stabbed the boy in the side of the chest, the detective told the court. Sweet then fled the area, and the boy was rushed to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.
Writing the court, Deputy Prosecutor Candice Duelos said the boy remained hospitalized for four days with a lacerated liver.
Sweet was arrested four days after the attack. He remains jailed on $250,000 bail.