Man arrested for barricading himself in stranger's Seattle home held on $30K bail

SEATTLE — A man accused of locking himself inside a Wallingford home for hours, destroying property inside while in an hours-long standoff with police waived his first appearance in court Friday afternoon. A judge set bail at $30,000.

Seattle police were called to the 1900 block of North 46th Street after a man reportedly darted inside the home of an elderly couple and locked himself inside Wednesday night at about 11:16 pm. Police said the couple stepped outside their home for a few moments when the suspect tried to sell them a tool, then ran inside the house.

"Too late I realized the guy’s going in our house, but by that time he was already at the door and was closing it," Rick Wyckoff, who lives in the home, said.

Responding officers heard the man playing the piano inside, destroying property, breaking windows, and threatening to blow up the home. Officers were finally able to enter the home and arrest the man as he was sleeping on a bed around 4:30 am.

"It was totally outrageous, everything he could get his hands on he threw out onto the floor or out the window, papers, pieces of furniture, mirrors that he ripped off the wall," Wyckoff said of the damage done inside, "It was bad, it was malicious, the guy went out of his way to make a mess, he took mayonnaise out of the refrigerator and smeared it all over the back door."

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KOMO News spoke with witnesses in the neighborhood who saw the same suspect banging on windows, throwing chairs, walking into the road and causing issues at nearby businesses around 10 p.m. before the home invasion and police standoff.

"He was screaming, he was taking his clothes off, putting it back on, throwing his backpack down, throwing his clothes in different areas, he just lost his sensibilities, something was wrong," Mark Lore, who was working nearby and saw Dorsey in the street.

Lore said police responded and they thought the situation had been handled, but Dorsey then went into a nearby bar and continued causing issues.

"I thought it was going to escalate immediately when they didn’t take him away," Lore said, "He’s still here, the problem is still going on, and it’s bigger now."

Lore said he tried calling the police again, but by then he believes Dorsey was inside the home and police were already responding to that.

Seattle Police would not confirm the same person was involved, but they did respond to multiple calls in the area around that time involving someone in behavioral crisis. SPD says no crimes were documented during the calls and no arrests were made.

According to Seattle Police Detective Valerie Carson, “Police contacted a subject who was acting erratically and continued to be in the roadway. Officers asked him to get out of the road and he did, officers asked him if he wanted to voluntarily go to the hospital and he said he did, officers called for an ambulance to transport him, but he then walked away.”

"Could something have been done earlier, that I don’t know because I don’t have enough information," Carol Judge, who also lives in the home, said, "Clearly he needs some help, our system is just not set up to help someone like that."