Sep 16, 2013 01:07 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Troy Wolff, a professor at Shoreline Community College, was stabbed to death Friday night in Seattle following a Sounders FC game, KGW Seattle reported.

While he and Kristin Ito, 30 and presumably his girlfriend, were leaving CenturyLink Field when a person brandishing a knife confronted the woman and began stabbing her in the torso. Wolff attempted to stop him and the attacker began brutally stabbing him in the chest and neck.

Officers from SWAT and gang units arrived first and apprehended the suspect, indicating he had some type of mental disability.

When police found the 44-year-old suspect, he was still standing near the victims holding the knife. Upon noticing the officers, he dropped it, but was still taken into custody. The investigation remains open, but all appearances indicate the attack was random and the suspect "was operating at a diminished mental capacity," police said.

The woman he was with was hospitalized, but Wolff died from the attack.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg told the Seattle Times Sunday his office and police were still searching for background information on the suspect.

"We're just learning about him now," he said. "He is not known to our criminal-justice system."

Not yet charged with a crime, the Times did not release the suspect's name and, although unconfirmed, he may have a criminal record in California. The suspect appeared to have served a 30-day sentence for violating conditions of his probation. A man with the same name and age was convicted in Sacramento County Superior Court for misdemeanor theft and arson.

Satterberg wrote an op-ed for the Times in the 2010 calling for mental health reform. He said mentally disabled people who commit acts of violence should be involuntarily admitted to psychiatric hospitals and monitored long-term.

Said Satterberg of Wolff's killing: "We can see incidents like this occur with tragic regularity in our community."

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