Seattle man says murder and arson charges against him based on ‘racist misidentification’

Seattle man says murder and arson charges against him based on ‘racist misidentification’

Paige Browning

John O'Brien

August 11, 2025 / 7:00 pm

In early June, Susan Lisette Klee, 72, died after a fire engulfed her home in the Wallingford neighborhood. About a month later, with the help of security camera footage, Seattle police arrested a suspect, a 25-year-old Amazon software engineer named Letian Shi. Shi and his lawyers maintained he was not the arsonist.

On Friday, King County prosecutors dropped their charges and released Shi, after nearly a month in jail. Seattle Times reporter Sara Jean Green has been covering this story . She gave KUOW’s Paige Browning this update.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Paige Browning: The arson victim, Susan Lisette Klee, was in he