Rainier Cemetery District

The post described a gruesome murder at a homeless camp in North Beacon Hill — but the tale turned out to be only partially true. Ari Hoffman said on Tuesday that he "should have verified the facts before sharing" the post published by the group Safe Seattle, which has a reputation for amplifying crime associated with homelessness. But he isn't denouncing Safe Seattle, saying that the group is "generally a reliable source of information" and has helped him in the past. On Saturday, a post appeared on the Safe Seattle Facebook page alleging that Seattle police were covering up a grisly murder that happened behind the QFC along Rainier Avenue. The post, credited to an anonymous tipster, said that the victim was beheaded, that the murder was possibly "drug-related," and the murderer was "on the loose in another camp I'm sure." On Monday, Seattle police confirmed that a body was found in the vicinity of the QFC on Feb. 16 (a few blocks east of the location mentioned in the Facebook post), but the person did not die of homicide. The King County Medical Examiner determines if a person dies by homicide, but has not in this instance. Autopsy reports are confidential unless a family member agrees to release the information, so the details may never be public. Hoffman denied being the person who gave the false information to Safe Seattle. He also said he doesn't know the identity of the person who did. He said he spoke to David Preston, Safe Seattle's most visible member, over the weekend only to obtain the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) number for the incident, he said. "My mistake was not doing that before I shared the post," he said. Hoffman said he got to know people involved with Safe Seattle last spring, when groups of homeless people started hanging around two North Seattle Jewish cemeteries, Bikur Cholim and the Sephardic Historical Cemetery. Hoffman said he has contributed posts to the Safe Seattle Facebook page, and reads it regularly. "Safe Seattle was one of the first in Seattle to bring awareness to the desec...