‘I was on edge’: 2 Metro bus drivers help police arrest deadly stabbing suspect
Seattle bus driver called 911 before being stabbed to death
A Seattle bus driver was on the phone with 911 during his attack, relaying the location of his suspected killer before being stabbed to death.
SEATTLE - FOX 13 is now hearing from two of the Metro bus drivers who helped Seattle Police arrest the suspect wanted in connection with the deadly stabbing of Shawn Yim.
"I was on edge, but I had to remain calm," said Timmothy Nelson, Metro Transit Operator.
Early Saturday morning, Seattle Police arrested 53-year-old Richard Sitzlack. He’s accused of stabbing and killing Metro bus driver Shawn Yim. That arrest happened on the bus that Nelson was driving.
"I was driving my route on the E line," Nelson said.
He told FOX 13, he got a call around 3 a.m. asking if someone matching Sitzlack’s description was on his bus, and that’s when he said he saw Sitzlack, at the back of his bus sleeping.
"I was pretty anxious about it," Nelson said.
Seattle bus driver called 911 before being stabbed to death: docs
Richard Sitzlack, the man accused of stabbing Metro bus driver Shawn Yim to death, is now facing first-degree murder charges.
He flagged down a nearby officer and that led to the arrest, but before that, it was Anthony Ross, another transit operator who spotted Sitzlack on his bus at the end of his shift. Ross had a gut feeling it was Sitzlack, so he jumped in his personal car, drove back to the stop and saw Sitzlack changing his shoes.
"I knew I recognized those shoes from somewhere and my heart kind of stopped because I knew where I recognized them from," Ross said. It was from a photo that Seattle Police shared with the public. Ross called the King County Sheriff’s office and reported what he saw.
"My gut was telling me right and it was a huge weight of relief," Ross said.
"It was pretty audacious and ba**** for him to do that but also really insulting, like insult to injury that he killed a Metro bus operator and felt comfortable enough to keep riding and comfortable enough to fall asleep in the back," Nelson said.
Ross told FOX 13 he believes Sitzlack had been on his bus multiple times, including on the same day Yim was killed.
"It’s something that you shouldn’t have to think about, you should just have to think about getting people from point A to point B and giving them good service, not, ‘am I going to die tonight?’" Ross said.
Nelson told FOX 13 Yim was patient, nice and a devoted family man.
"From what I understand, the day before he was murdered, Shawn was dropping off presents to his family and the next day he was gone, how do you deal with that? I don’t know, but it makes me feel like I want to hold my family a little closer," Nelson said.
Both men add, there needs to be some change to help ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
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