On Saturday, Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers arrested a man suspected of killing King County Metro bus driver Shawn Yim, a tragedy marked over the weekend with a vigil at the scene of his death in the University District. The attack represented the first killing of a Metro bus driver in 26 years.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office released details about the attack over the weekend. Just before 3 am on December 18, Yim picked up two passengers from a bus stop on 15th Avenue and 43rd Street NE, directly across from the University of Washington campus. As one of the passengers boarded, he closed a bus window. This sparked an argument between Yim and the passenger: Yim said the window needed to stay open to prevent the glass from fogging up, while the passenger said he was cold. Yim drove just two blocks before stopping to close the window.
According to court documents, the argument escalated and Yim ultimately told the man to exit the bus. The man then walked up to Yim, and allegedly pepper sprayed him, before stepping off the bus. Yim followed and the man sprayed Yim again, allegedly kicked him, and then walked away. Yim continued to trail the man, calling 911 and saying a passenger had attacked him. Yim told dispatch, “Hurry please … he’s fleeing.”
Surveillance video showed Yim following the man for about a minute, before the man turned around and the two began to fight. The man allegedly stabbed Yim about 10 times before walking away, leaving Yim on the ground. Less than a minute later, the other passenger from the bus can be seen on surveillance video checking on Yim. He told police that Yim already appeared unresponsive at that point.
Yim’s death spurred a manhunt and a flurry of news articles. KOMO described how the man suspected of stabbing Yim had dragged the driver off the bus, which turned out to be false. Multiple outlets blasted out the suspect’s name and photo after SPD posted it online. Others, such as The Stranger and the Seattle Times, refrained from naming the suspect prior to prosecutors filing formal charges, which the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) finally did Monday, charging 53-year-old Richard Sitzlack with murder.
The KCPAO spokesperson Casey McNerthney said his office and SPD detectives became aware of Sitzlack last year when SPD officers arrested him for murder in connection to the stabbing death of his roommate in November 2023. Prosecutors never filed formal charges however, and McNerthney said while police investigators initially had doubts about Sitzlack’s claim of self-defense, he said further investigation seemed to support Sitzlack’s story.
A mounting problem
In the hours after the stabbing, King County Officials such as King County Executive Dow Constantine, officials from King County Metro, and representatives with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587, held a press conference about Yim’s death. The union called for an expansion of the transit police force and for the installation of protective cages for drivers. The union’s president, Greg Woodfill, argued the county and the region haven’t done enough to keep drivers safe.
Over the last two decades, assaults against Metro bus drivers have generally decreased from the highs of the early 2000s, such as in 2006 when drivers reported 189 assaults in one year. In 2018, with daily ridership close to about 400,000, the number of assaults hovered at about 81 that year, with 40 of those incidents involving passengers spitting on drivers. With daily ridership sitting just below 300,000 in 2023, there were 34 assaults, nine of which involved spitting. As of November this year, Metro has recorded just 15 assaults even as daily ridership continues to rebound since the pandemic. That said, some drivers have busier routes, may have faced multiple assaults over their time at Metro, and many drivers view this as a cumulative issue, and not easily quantified.
The number of assaults directly against drivers is one statistic and it doesn’t encapsulate all the times drivers felt unsafe on their buses. Bus drivers deal with passengers fighting, people overdosing, and, in general, people kind of sucking sometimes. Even before Yim’s death, it became clear something had come to a head for drivers when last week Metro announced that it planned to close its stops at 12th Avenue and Jackson Street because of potential dangers to its drivers and passengers. Yim’s death led to renewed calls from the drivers’ union for better barriers to protect them from attacks and random riders’ spit. At the same time, the union’s demands for more transit police seems like a way to exacerbate the issue of people becoming more agitated in this City, and create more hostility to people in poverty.
Agitation in the City
In particular, the city’s police force seems already predisposed to be hostile to the homeless. Kristina Sawyckyi happened to be handing out meals in the University District as cops searched for the suspect in the stabbing. She described watching as members of law enforcement approached homeless people hanging near bus stops and started shining flashlights in their faces. She said she heard the officers yelling about how homeless people in Seattle commit so much crime and are a burden and a problem. SPD spokesperson Eric Muñoz said he was on scene the day of the stabbing and he was “not aware of any of this.” SPD officers, KCSO deputies, and UW Police Officers all helped with the search, he said and he cannot speak for what any officers may have said during that time.
Greg Kim with the Seattle Times just wrote an excellent piece about how Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plans to clean up downtown have yielded major results along Third Avenue in the last two months. Kim described how a combination of arrests and street “cleanings” have led to a lower number of reported crimes, calls for drug activity, and people on the streets. But as Kim said, the disorder “didn’t go far.”
Kim pointed out how as Third Avenue calmed down, issues in the Chinatown International District simultaneously surged, and gave examples such as the stabbing that injured nine people in November. Kim describes how police have become more physical with people living homeless on Third Avenue, grabbing them by the shirt, and making them feel unwelcome. However, these individuals are often pushed into Little Saigon, right near where Metro had to close the 12th Avenue and Jackson Street bus stops.
These policies don’t reduce poverty and addiction; they simply keep people struggling with these concerns constantly on the move. And the easiest, cheapest way to move around this city is public transit. And while in the coming days, many people will stress that public transit is generally safe, the other point to remember is that people are generally safe too. Including the people on public transit who make you uncomfortable with their mental illness and poverty. However, even a typically safe person, when dealing with constant instability, fear, and violence, may lash out during a particularly bad day. (That said, unhoused people are far more likely to be the victims of a violent crime than the perpetrators.)
And look, I don’t know much about this Sitzlack guy, and whether the city could have done something to prevent this tragedy. I wish I did. What I do know is that the more this city treats the homeless and the people struggling with addiction like criminals, rather than a population who need services, money, and evidence-based support, the deeper the city pushes them into poverty, illness, and crime.
Instead of increasing police, we should focus on improving the lives of our citizens. We should finally create a functioning police alternative to help people in crisis—a program that continues to flounder in Seattle due to resistance from our police union and the Mayor’s constant capitulation to their demands. We should make sure JumpStart money goes toward housing, not our bloated police overtime budget. We should create hiring incentives for social workers and mental health counselors, not cops. We should make sure people in this city fall into a social safety net, not a jail cell.
How is Mayor Harrell’s crack down on 3rd tied to a suspect who possibly murdered a roommate a year ago in the Ravenna neighborhood? Seems like this tragedy falls on the inability of the KCPO to bring a case against this dude a year ago.
“We should make sure people in this city fall into a social safety net, not a jail cell.”
The jail cell IS the social safety net to keep evil people out of society and away from continued murdering.
If we had the excess $8B that Mark Dones said we need to solve homelessness, I’d be at the front of the line advocating for writing checks. That not being the case, I can’t help but see this as another blow to the Seattle working class — the bus drivers and remaining riders that have no other choice but take the bus. Let’s get these drivers what they need to feel safe and find some other supports for riders too, or we will continue to see divestment in public transit.
Murders don’t need a social safety net. They need to be in jail. The Stranger will blame everyone except the actual murderer… that’s a bad look but certainly fits TS’s M.O.
Another installment in the “law enforcement causes crime” fantasy adventure series serialized here in the Stranger. Tune in next week for another thrilling episode!
I can assure you that arresting violent criminals and locking them up in jail for long periods of time will improve the lives of Seattle’s citizens. It probably will even improve the lives of the arrested if they take advantage of the opportunities in prison to clean themselves up. I don’t actually care much about the latter however. Improving the lives of the vast majority of Seattle’s citizens should be the priority. And incarceration of those few that are determined to make life for the rest of the citizens worse is a very good way to do exactly what Ashley demands…make life better for Seattle citizens.
Why is the person who complains about the cost of parking tickets covering the public transportation beat? Does she even use the system?
Housing Jahmed Haynes didn’t seem to help Ruth Dalton very much
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/man-accused-of-killing-80-year-old-seattle-dog-walker-found-incompetent/
I’m with Totoman on December 23, 2024 at 4:37 PM. We cannot risk having transit be divested. Just cannot.
That means backing the blue and I certainly commend those cops shining spotlights into faces, going the extra mile to find this bus driver’s killer.
Also jail is where we can place correctional services like counseling and job skill training. No harm in that.
Another day, another article where The Stranger once again argues that wherever any policy choice results in tradeoffs, the city should resolve them in favor of homeless people. Whether it is bus drivers, bus riders, shop owners, pedestrians, parents,.or children trying to walk to school, The Stranger beleves that the City of Seattle should prioritize the homeless above all of them.
I find it strange that King County Metro doesn’t train its drivers in de-escalation or better yet just don’t engage in the first place. We don’t have mental health facilities in this country like we did before Reagan gutted funding. The outdoors and prison has become our mental hospital and everyone needs to be made aware of it.
I’m a King County Metro Bus Operator.
I want homeless people who are just looking for a place to sleep off of the bus, because I want them in an actual bed. Not somewhere where they’re kicked off every hour so I can my coworkers can take our break.
Metro is one of the agencies bearing some of the brunt from the City, County, State, and Country’s failed housing, mental health, and drug treatment policies. The homeless, mentally ill, and drug addicted deserve better. The people of Seattle and King County deserve better.
Operator compartments are important, but they’re only one tool for operator safety, and they’re meaningless the moment we need to secure a wheelchair, go to the bathroom, or close a coach window.
The communities that Metro operates in needs to be safe before the inside of the buses is safe.
Well said, Ashley.
It blows my mind the people in power won’t see the obvious and respond appropriately.
((hugs)) to all public workers who are trying their damnedest to give us a functioning society while our politicians continue to bend over for ineffectual rich people. We need real people to vote for, not more arse kissers climbing up the status pole.
@12 Thank you.
Such a strange headline:
“King County Metro Bus Driver Shawn Yim’s Death Is a Tragedy”
Typically, news headlines report news – not an obvious sentiment. This comes across as backpedaling, like “Yes, The Stranger admits there are some really awful crimes!”
I can’t imagine how fed up bus drivers must be with vagrents using their bus as a homeless shelter (and not paying a fare). I also feel sorry for all the normal people stuck riding public transport in this city!
@1: The 2023 incident wasn’t “in the Ravenna neighborhood”.
@17 Officers responded to a 911 call about an assault on the 5500 block of University Way Northeast around 1:30 a.m. – I consider that Ravenna, maybe you consider it edge of the U District. In either event, dude had no connection to 3rd.
The gap between progressive delusion and reality continues to grow. I identified as a progressive for years. Now I watch in anger and disgust as the far left destroys cities. Leftist have trashed their brand with failed policies that ignore reality and increase crime, misery and disorder. This is why the middle is swinging right. The left deserves to lose elections if they can’t produce results that make life better for the residents of this city. I spent 15 fucking years waiting for results.
Listen up – Rumor or Lead:
What the press and police aren’t telling people: Sitzlack is said to be German-Venezuelan who came illegally into the US in 2000. (I gather he speaks English like an American but it’s not his first language. His first language is Spanish or possibly Spanish/German bilingual and he is fluent in English.) And he came into the U.S. possibly because he’s wanted for murder in Venezuela? But I guess we can’t ask the Venezuelan authorities because our government still isn’t speaking with them?
(You now, they have police depts too like other civilized nations, so maybe some enterprising reporter or someone else could inquire? If he came in legally, he would have obtained from the Venezuelan govt what is called something like a Certificate regarding Criminality – which shows that the person doesn’t have a criminal record. But I bet he doesn’t have that.)
On his alleged roots, there’s a municipality in northern Venezuela largely or partly populated by white German Venezuelans who emigrated over in the 1800s. There’s a fairly well-known German church there. And you will find a Richard Siztlack and Ebergard (the other one listed in Miami at the same PO box) listed for that area in Venezuela.
@18: “In either event, dude had no connection to 3rd.”
True. But 3rd Avenue is where Harrell chose to move his transit police emphasis. And crime/bad behavior goes where the police are not. That said, issues over an open window seems to be a weird hill to die on. Yim had a face full of pepper spray. But he had Sitzlack off the bus. Retreat. Report the incident. It may or may not be dealt with by the proper authorities. But that’s the way Mr Mayor chooses to run his city. The downtown business district gets the attention, outlying neighborhoods do not.
@21 “That said, issues over an open window seems to be a weird hill to die on”
I don’t think the bus driver knew he was risking his life by asserting his authority as the bus driver. He can’t safely drive with a fogged window, though, and the passenger is supposed to understand this. When he tells a passenger to do something, they’re supposed to listen to the bus driver or get th off the bus. And if they’re too mentally ill to handle this, then they shouldn’t be riding around on public transportation.
I think the sequence of events, too, as described in the article, are entirely accurate. They keep describing it as an altercation – as if the bus driver bore responsibility for being attacked (blaming
the victim) and this just wasn’t the case. It was just Sitzlack attacking Mr Yim and then killing him for laying down the rules and who was in charge on the bus.
It bothers me that the answer to this, in some people’s minds, is some kumbayah “deescalation training.” Well, I suppose that’s always a good skill to have under your belt, but there should be 911 buzzers for the drivers to press which would instantly go off at the police station and instantly require a one minute response time from SPD, given the fact that it’s a red alert from a bus driver.
This used to be normal in our society – to have a rapid police response time to an emergency call from public transportation.
Lastly, this man is/was obviously dangerous. He murdered a housemate who tried to kick him out of the apartment, and then he murdered this bus driver for trying to kick him off the bus because he wasn’t behaving – and probably wasn’t behaving as a housemate, either.
But somehow that incident too was cast as “altercation” in which Sitzlack was defending himself?
I mean, c’mon. Enough of this baloney.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Siztlack is even wanted for murder in Venezuela where he’s allegedly from. (see @20) Are the authorities even checking?
This is happening too because city, state, and federal officials are not sufficiently addressing the national homelessness crisis; Seattle has some of the highest numbers, nationwide, and as a result, the problem is flowing onto the public transportation system.
There are increasing numbers of bus incidents with mentally unstable and often homeless people that are unfortunately yet potentially quite dangerous. They are trying to get out of the weather – the cold. And the shelter system is awful so they don’t want to go there, and in many cases, it’s not even there anyway (i.e. they don’t have sufficient space). They need housing, for goodness sakes.
With the ever-growing increase in these incidents on the public transportation system, it’s been very predictable that something like this would horribly yet eventually happen. Will it be a wake-up call, though? Apparently not. And who will be next?
Not the City Council, of course, though I am beginning to think that any City Council member should not be allowed to drive a car or take a cab or uber in Seattle. They should be required, at all times, to only ride the bus system. Or get out of office.
Happy New Year; you’re all fired.
@29 typo: “I think the sequence of events, too, as described in the article, [aren’t] entirely accurate.”
@23: The timeline seems to agree with what I’ve read published elsewhere (Seattle Times, etc.)