Police are looking for a man who hit two people in the head with a hammer late Thursday afternoon in the underground passenger lobby of Sound Transit's Beacon Hill Station.
The attack appears to be unprovoked, said Seattle police Officer Shawn Weismiller, a department spokesperson.
The victims, a man and woman in their 60s, were stable and taken to hospitals, Weismiller said. Patrol officers and transit security guards have a clear description of the assailant, was still on the loose as of 5:40 p.m., officials said.
He may have gotten into a train and traveled to Capitol Hill Station, a transit spokesperson said. Sound Transit issued a train-delay alert around 5 p.m., for about 10 minutes of slowdowns related to "police activity."
This incident comes about two months after a man stabbed a fellow passenger 18 times onboard a light-rail train near Othello Station on July 21, without provocation, before fellow riders stepped forward and rescued the victim, as well as a Sodo Station incident July 28 where someone bludgeoned another man in the head with a rock. A third publicized report, of a stabbing July 30 at Angle Lake Station, was later ruled unfounded, according to the King County Sheriff's Office, which staffs the transit police.
Sound Transit contracted with four companies to supply more guards this year, leading to a noticeably larger presence, but only 50 of 89 budgeted transit-police posts were filled as of mid-2023. CEO Julie Timm told board members Thursday, hours before the hammer incident, that she will launch regular online and public meeting updates this fall of security data, including assaults, along with other safety facts such as train or bus-involved collisions.
