With bullets flying, wounded Seattle bus driver drove passengers to safety
After being hit in the chest by gunfire, Metro bus driver Eric Stark says one of his first thoughts was for his passengers: “I’m going to get these people out of here.”
Stark wheeled the bus out of the Lake City neighborhood where a gunman was going on a rampage, randomly shooting at cars on Wednesday afternoon. Stark finally stopped when he was well away from the scene. None of the 12 passengers in his bus were injured, according to King County Metro Transit.
Stark, 53, was hailed as a hero by witnesses and officials, including Mayor Jenny Durkan and County Executive Dow Constantine.
He remained in Harborview Medical Center in satisfactory condition Thursday morning. He was “in good spirits” and joined by family members Wednesday night, said Kenneth Price, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587.
A 56-year-old woman who was shot during another part of the incident remains in satisfactory condition at the hospital.
Stark has been with Metro since 2012. His wife is a part-time bus operator, while her brother is a supervisor would review the case, calling it an “embarrassment” to the country.
Prosecutors infuriated Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the police chief this week when they abruptly dropped 16 felony counts that accused Smollett of making a false police report about being the target of a racist, anti-gay attack in January.
Smollett has maintained his innocence and insisted that the attack was real.
The prosecution sealed the case, but authorities still say the actor concocted the assault. Prosecutors offered no additional information Thursday during a court hearing where media attorneys argued that the public has a right to know what happened.
If Smollett fails to pay, officials could charge him with violating a city ordinance and seek fines, damages and court costs. and her father drove transit for three decades, according to the union.
Seattle police said Wednesday’s incident started just after 4 p.m. when the gunman shot a woman while trying to steal her car.
Stark, lying in a hospital bed, described driving up to the scene in footage aired on KOMO-TV.
Stark said he saw a man running toward his bus. The man then fell to the pavement, he said.
“I stopped [my bus] short, and that’s when I noticed he rolled over on his back, and noticed he had a gun, like a Glock,” Stark said. The shooter stood and fired at Stark as the driver sat behind the wheel.
“The bullet struck me in the left chest,” Stark said in the interview. “So I ducked down really quick for some cover, did like a two-second assessment of my injuries and figured well, I can breathe, I can think, I can see, and I can talk. So for me that was enough to go ‘OK, I’m getting out of here, I’m going to get these people out of here.’ And the only way to do that was to back up.”
Stark backed the bus up, hoping nobody was behind it, and then drove five or six blocks away, ending at Northeast 125th Street.
“The safety of the passengers is what really stands out,” said Price, the union president. “I think the heroics that he did, to deal with the elements that are out there — we’re very, very proud of him and our profession.”
Police said the gunman then shot and killed a 50year-old man and stole his car, taking off as officers arrived. Police pursued the gunman for a block and a half before he collided with another car, killing the driver, a 70-year-old man, police said.