Seattle, May 14, 2026, 12:03 (PDT)
Turning Point USA postponed a University of Washington event featuring conservative activist Chloe Cole after the killing of a 19-year-old transgender student, while Seattle police said a 31-year-old man had been taken into custody in the homicide case.
The timing made the event more than another campus speech fight. It had been set for Wednesday, May 13, days after the student was found dead at Nordheim Court, and students had pressed UW to cancel or delay a program they saw as inflammatory while the campus was grieving.
The arrest narrowed the immediate manhunt, but it did not answer the larger questions now driving anger on campus: why the student was killed, whether any warning signs were missed, and how UW handles political events when a vulnerable community says it feels under threat. KOMO reported the man turned himself in to Bellevue police, was booked into King County Jail for investigation of murder and was expected in court Thursday afternoon.
Seattle police said officers found the 19-year-old victim dead with stab wounds after a report of a stabbing at about 10:10 p.m. Sunday at Nordheim Court, a UW campus housing building in the 5000 block of 25th Avenue Northeast. Police said the King County Medical Examiner would identify the victim; the student’s name had not been released in the available police updates.
Cole was booked for a “Pick Up the Mic” event, a debate-style format associated with Turning Point USA. Them reported the session was produced with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, another conservative higher-education group, and described Cole as a detransitioner — someone who transitioned and later reversed course — who opposes gender-affirming care, medical care that supports a person’s gender identity. Them
UW spokesperson Victor Balta said the national Turning Point organization, not the local chapter, made the decision to cancel the event scheduled for that day. He told the Seattle Times that UW Student Activities Office leaders had been in contact with the chapter about the “appropriateness of the timing” after the killing of a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Spokesman-Review
The UW chapter said it condemned the killing and had made the “difficult decision to postpone” after what it called violent threats aimed at the chapter and attempts to tie its event to the death. Cole separately claimed in a video that “Antifa” threats had made the event unsafe, while the chapter said it still planned to reschedule. FOX 13 Seattle
UW President Robert J. Jones called the student’s death a “profound loss” and said violence affecting a trans person can be “especially worrying” for LGBTQIA+ students. The university had issued an alert Sunday night telling Nordheim Court residents to stay indoors and lock doors and windows, then lifted that instruction around 1 a.m. Good Morning America
Housing security has become its own line of scrutiny. Students told KOMO they had heard allegations about a prior break-in at the same complex and a faulty laundry-room lock; one student, Emma Saika, described “fear, confusion, and frustration,” while Greystar, which operates Nordheim Court, had not responded to KOMO’s requests. KOMO
Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck said the victim “deserved better” and that Seattle must be a “refuge for our trans neighbors.” Them reported that students had also gathered around an impromptu campus memorial, with some tributes written to an unnamed student because officials had not publicly released the victim’s identity. Seattle City Council Blog
But key facts could still change the story. Police have not announced a motive, the public record cited in local reports describes the booking as for investigation of murder rather than filed charges, and the claims about threats surrounding the TPUSA event remain allegations in the available reports. For now, UW is dealing with three pressures at once: a homicide case, student fear over housing safety, and a postponed political event that is likely to return.
