Tacoma man identified as victim of fatal stabbing in Lewis County
The Lewis County coroner on Wednesday identified the victim of a December homicide in Chehalis as a 46-year-old Tacoma man.
William A. Foster III died Dec. 20 of internal bleeding due to multiple stab wounds, the coroner’s office determined. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. Foster was attacked in a van near 600 North National Avenue that evening after a man approached the vehicle at a gas station and asked for a cigarette, according to court documents, the Chronicle reported.
After the man got the cigarette, he opened the van door and started stabbing Foster, the newspaper reported. A 12-year-old boy in the van with Foster was also injured. He was treated at the hospital for lacerations and released.
Lewis County prosecutors charged a 30-year-old Grays Harbor County man, Billy J. Bartlett, with attacking the two people. He was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree assault of a child.
Bartlett was arrested and booked into Lewis County Jail the night of the stabbing after police received a call about a person matching the stabber’s description trying to break into an apartment complex in the city.
