Suspect in Motel 6 stabbing arrested in rural Whatcom County
Police arrested a man accused of stabbing his father at a Bellingham motel, after he spent two days on the run.
Police say Nicholas Philip Zender, 26, got into an argument about money with his father Monday, Oct. 12, at a Motel 6 on Byron Street, off Samish Way in Bellingham.
The two men came to blows. In the fight Zender stabbed his father several times in the thigh, according to police. He fled before officers could find him.
His father was rushed to St. Joseph hospital but his wounds were not considered life-threatening.
Around 3 o’clock in the morning Wednesday, dispatchers got a tip that Zender and a woman were at a home in the 7900 block of Silver Lake Road, in the Maple Falls area.
Two Bellingham police officers and a sheriff’s deputy drove to the home and arrested him. He did not resist, said Bellingham Police Lt. Bob Vander Yacht.
Zender claimed he stabbed his father in self defense, police said.
He faces a charge of assault in the first degree, violating a protection order and, in a separate case, failure to show up to court on a charge of malicious mischief in the third degree. He has no felony history in Washington.
Reach Caleb Hutton at 360-715-2276 or caleb.hutton@bellinghamherald.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bhamcaleb.
This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Suspect in Motel 6 stabbing arrested in rural Whatcom County."