UPDATE:

Officer Scott McGlashan informed us that the van was impounded and the registered owner is a person of interest. The investigation is still on-going.

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Crime news gatherer Jonah Spangenthal-Lee at PubliCola reports that a group of homeless men and women were brutally beaten in Ballard last Friday in what appears to be a random attack.

"The group was gathered on 15th Ave. NW and NW 56th St. around 4:00 pm on October 22nd, when a white Volkswagen van drove by and parked about a half-block away.

Four men exited the van a few minutes later and walked up to and attacked the homeless men and women, punching and kicking them before the suspects fled in their van.

The victims later told police they did not know the men who had attacked them. Officers were able to track the van to a home, where they found blood on a door handle. The van and its owner were not home at the time."