Yim, 59, was memorialized Friday as the sort of bus driver who always waited an extra minute to make sure kids got their ride to school and provided extra help to elderly passengers.
His colleague and friend Mitch Spencer, a Metro supervisor, said that in their group chat with friends, Yim was always the first to wish everyone Merry Christmas or Happy New Year. This year, there was no holiday text.
Yim was killed in the early morning hours of Dec. 18 while driving his bus route through the University District. After a confrontation with a passenger about an open window, the passenger pepper-sprayed Yim, according to court documents. Seattle police said Yim followed the passenger off the bus while calling 911, got into an altercation, and Yim was stabbed. The accused assailant was arrested three days later and has been charged with murder.
A procession of around 100 buses and maintenance vehicles from around the region drove along Fourth Avenue in SODO at the start of Friday’s memorial to slain King County Metro Transit Operator Shawn Yim. (M. Scott Brauer/Cascade PBS)
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587, which represents Metro workers, held a memorial Friday to honor Yim.
The event began with a bus processional up Fourth Avenue through Downtown. Roughly 100 buses and maintenance vehicles drove through the city, flanked by police motorcycles. Many of the digital displays on buses read “Shawn Yim” and “#21882,” Yim’s operator number. Another bus read “In Memoriam, Brother Shawn Yim.”
King County operators were joined in the processional by buses and drivers from Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, Mason, Grays Harbor and Spokane counties, along with buses from as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia, and Portland, Oregon.
After a loop through Downtown and up to Seattle Center, the processional ended at the Lumen Field Events Center, where at least 1,000 Metro employees, King County staff, union representatives, politicians and members of the public gathered to mourn and call for change.
“[Yim] was a fixture at Central Base,” said Greg Woodfill, president of ATU Local 587, during the memorial. “I know he’s left a gaping hole for so many that can’t be filled. And I know that this union, Shawn’s union, will never let his memory fade, will never let his sacrifice go in vain.”
Wade Woolley, a field operations supervisor with King County Metro, salutes drivers during Friday’s memorial bus procession in SODO. Woolley teared up as he talked about seeing the memorial. “It’s awesome to have the Metro family out today,” he said. “The reality is that it could happen at any time. This is daily life.” (M. Scott Brauer/Cascade PBS)
Hundreds of people, including many King County Metro workers, gathered for the memorial service for Yim at WAMU Theater on Friday. Union officials, co-workers, and politicians spoke at the memorial. (M. Scott Brauer/Cascade PBS)
People wrote remembrances to Yim on a banner before the memorial service on Friday. (M. Scott Brauer/Cascade PBS)
Dani Sizemore (center right), bus operations communications manager for King County Metro, watched with others from the Yesler Way overpass as buses from around the region traveled along Fourth Avenue in SODO as a memorial to slain King County Metro transit operator Shawn Yim. (M. Scott Brauer/Cascade PBS)
Yim was the first King County Metro bus driver in 26 years who was killed on the job. On Nov. 27, 1998, a passenger shot and killed operator Mark McLaughlin while he was driving Route 358. But while killings are rare, operators and union representatives said assaults are a near-daily problem, with unruly passengers spitting on, kicking, hitting, yelling at and otherwise harassing drivers.
Woodfill said the union has been calling for safety improvements on buses, but feels like the calls mostly fell on deaf ears prior to Yim’s death.
“So here we are again, on a day we all knew was coming,” he said in his remarks. “[We’re] left heartbroken, fearful, angry, distrustful and anxious. Our demands for safety after this painful tragedy must be met this year. We won’t wait again for another 26 years or another murder.”
Those demands include more transit security officers making rounds on routes and to install more robust barriers that can separate and protect drivers from passengers if necessary.
According to King County Metro, the agency has increased its number of transit security officers from 80 to 170 over the past few years, and continues to recruit more transit police. In the wake of Yim’s death, the agency ordered four test buses with “ADA-compliant, European-style operator compartment[s]” that are similar to the enclosures for operators on the light-rail and street cars.
The King County Council is discussing further safety improvements for Metro buses at a special meeting on Jan. 13 at 9 a.m.
County Councilmember Jorge Barón watched the bus processional from the corner of Fourth Avenue and Washington Street on Friday. He told Cascade PBS that the Council was looking into ways to increase transit security officers and install the safety barriers, but was open to hearing more ideas for safety improvements from the union and bus operators themselves.
People wore buttons with Yim’s transit operator number, 21882, for the memorial. (M. Scott Brauer/Cascade PBS)
Stephen Hooper was a Metro bus driver for 15 years and still works at Metro in a different role. He stood with a group of Metro employees watching the bus processional from the Yesler Terrace overpass above Fourth Avenue Friday morning.
Speaking to Cascade PBS in a personal capacity and not as a representative of the agency, Hooper said, “The drivers need to be safe and the riders need to be safe, i.e., the bus needs to be safe. The larger problems are the issue, not whether our people are in a secured box, which is probably a necessity, but it’s not the solution.”
He continued, explaining that he wants to see the city, county and state do more to address the root issues contributing to homelessness, addiction and street disorder to ensure safety for all passengers. “Everyone should be able to ride the bus,” said Hooper. “We need to take better care of everyone.”
According to Woodfill, Yim’s family has chosen to lay him to rest at Lake View Cemetery because it sits right next to the 10 bus route’s northern terminus on Capitol Hill.
