Seattle police are asking for citizen help in identifying and locating the attacker of a developmentally disabled 61-year-old man on Sunday, March 24 at a bus stop in the Rainier Beach neighborhood. The victim, Ray Pieczynski, was sitting at the Metro bus stop at Rainier Avenue South and South Fisher Place around 12:40 p.m. when the suspect approached him and struck him in the head with what witnesses describe as a baseball bat. According to witnesses, the attacker then fled in a gold Ford Contour sedan.

Responders from Seattle police and fire were dispatched to the scene. Pieczynski was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where doctors determined that he had suffered traumatic brain injury. To remove the pressure, surgeons drained blood from his brain and removed a section of his skull.

Detectives interviewed three witnesses and searched the area for video surveillance, which yielded a photo of the late 1990’s Ford Contour.

The victim’s sister, Julia Wiese, lives in Edmonds. Her photographic work is often featured on My Edmonds News.

“My brother suffers from a disability due to years of seizures,” Wiese explained. “He lives with his twin who is also mildly developmentally disabled. They’ve lived together all their lives; they take care of each other. I can’t imagine why anyone would single him out.”

According to Wiese, her brother had all but lost the power of speech when he was first hospitalized but has shown good improvement in subsequent days. She reports that he is now speaking in full, coherent sentences, and that doctors hope he will be well enough to transfer to a rehabilitation facility soon.

“Ray is one of the nicest, gentlest people you could meet,” she said.

The attacker has yet to be identified, and no motive has been determined. Detectives continue looking for leads. Wiese asks that anyone with any information please call the Seattle Police Department’s Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000. The case has also been taken up by Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound and KCPQ-13’s Washington’s Most Wanted.

— By Larry Vogel