A 27-year-old Seattle man allegedly called a QFC employee a slur repeatedly, then threatened to return to the store and shoot him, court documents state.
SEATTLE — A Seattle man is accused of hurling racist slurs at a QFC employee in Ballard last December, and threatening to return to the store with a gun, according to new charging documents.
Jack Vafi, 27, was charged with two hate crime charges in connection to the 2025 incident, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Vafi pleaded not guilty on May 6.
On the morning of Dec. 11, 2025, police responded to the QFC grocery store in Ballard at 5700 24th Avenue Northwest.
Court documents allege Vafi – a white man – was using the self-checkout lane and “without any provocation,” began to repeatedly call one of the QFC employees a racial slur.
The employee trespassed Vafi and followed him at a distance to the parking garage to take a photo of his vehicle. Then, court documents state, Vafi got into his vehicle and drove toward the employee, nearly striking him.
Vafi allegedly returned to the store the following day and targeted the same employee, saying he “did not like Black people” and threatening to return with a gun to shoot him, documents state.
Police obtained surveillance footage from the suspect’s store visits and tracked him down based on his California license plate.
Vafi remains in jail on $5,050 bail.
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