Police: Woman de-icing car stabbed in back by complete stranger

SEATTLE -- A woman who was scraping ice off her car's windshield was stabbed in the shoulder by a stranger Saturday in a frightening assault near the Woodland Park Zoo.

Now, police are looking for a suspect.

Around 2:40 p.m. Saturday, the victim walked to her parked car in the 4500 block of Woodland Park Avenue, Seattle police said.

A layer of frost over her car, the victim began to scrape her windshield when she was approached from behind and stabbed in the upper back.

According to police, the victim turned around and saw an unknown female in her 30s running northbound on 45th Street. The victim did not know the suspect, she told police, and nothing was stolen. She also said she had no idea why the suspect stabbed her.

The victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center with a non-life-threatening injury. Police said she suffered a wound about an inch and half deep.

A nearby witness told police he saw a confused woman walking down the middle of the roadway and appear to walk up to the victim and punch her in the back. The suspect ran away, and the victim cried out she had been stabbed.

Police in the area could not locate the suspect. The suspect is a black woman in her 30s, and wearing a purple jacket at the time of the stabbing, police said.

Anyone with additional information on this assault should call 911.