SEATTLE — Newly released video shows the moments leading up to the fatal stabbing of 59-year-old King County Metro bus driver Shawn Yim.
Yim was killed while on his route in Seattle’s University District on Dec. 18. Richard Sitzlack, 53, was arrested and charged with Yim’s murder after a multi-day manhunt. A judge set his bail at $5 million.
Video from inside the King County Metro bus obtained through a public records request shows Sitzlack entering the bus and sitting for a little over a minute before closing one of the bus windows because he was cold.
Yim can be heard in the video telling Sitzlack to “leave it (the window) alone” before ultimately getting up and closing the window himself, telling Sitzlack, “If you don’t like it, you can take a different bus.”
The video then shows Sitzlack walking up to Yim and verbally assaulting him before walking back to where he was sitting. Minutes later, the video shows Yim kicking Sitzlack off the bus, saying, “This is your last stop.”
Sitzlack can then be seen walking to the front of the bus and aggressively spraying mace in Yim’s eyes before exiting the bus. Yim proceeded to get up, dazed by the mace, and fell off of the bus. Sitzlack can be seen in the video kicking Yim while he was on the ground. The altercation continued, but the Metro bus cameras did not capture the fatal stabbing that ensued in an alley near University Way NE and NE 41st Street.
Sitzlack was arrested days later after another Metro bus driver noticed him sleeping in the back of his bus and called Seattle police.
Yim’s death was the first time in 26 years that a transit operator was killed on the job, but ATU 587 leaders have said it shows the worst-case scenario for what bus drivers are subjected to routinely on the job.
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