Man pleads guilty to second-degree assault at Kent Library

Published 1:03 pm Thursday, March 26, 2026

A 37-year-old Seattle man pleaded guilty to second-degree assault for stabbing a man in the arm at the Kent Library.

Travis Anthony Alen entered the guilty plea March 23 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, where he remains in custody. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 3.

Alen, who initially pleaded not guilty Jan. 26, admitted to stabbing an 18-year-old Kent man at about 1:40 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Kent Library, 212 Second Ave. N., in a reportedly unprovoked incident, according to charging documents.

Kent Police officers were dispatched to a stabbing at HealthPoint Urgent Care, 219 State Ave. N., according to charging papers. An employee called 911 to report a subject ran into the clinic saying he was just stabbed. An officer interviewed the Kent man who said he was at the library when a man, later identified as Alen, reportedly started arguing with him and that he told Alen to shut up, according to charging documents.

Alen then stabbed the Kent man in the arm. The Kent man told police that Alen reached into his pocket and punched something toward him but he didn’t see what the object was. He was struck near his left bicep and had a clear stab injury, according to police.

He said the security guard at the library knew Alen by name. An officer talked to employees and a security guard at the library who provided a picture of Alen. Officers found Alen a short time later at the King County Metro Transit Center and took him into custody without incident, according to charging papers.

When officers searched Alen, they reportedly found in his possession two sheathed daggers, two sets of brass knuckles, a collapsible baton and a folding knife that had wet blood on the blade, according to police.

The library’s security guard told officers that Alen had been in the library on prior occasions and had never caused a problem. Alen told officers that “some dude kept walking around me,” when asked about the library incident, according to charging documents.

He said he told the man to stop or sit down. He said the man gave him no choice but to stab him. “I leave everybody alone, they keep coming around me,” Alen reportedly said to an officer. “I’m eventually going to have to do something, otherwise I’m gonna have people jumping.”

Alen’s criminal history includes a 2018 conviction for failing to register as a sex offender in King County and juvenile adjudications for first-degree child molestation in 2003, according to charging papers.