Man threatened at Seattle bus stop, hate-crime arrest made

A Seattle man faces a felony hate-crime charge after being arrested Thursday for threatening to stab an African-American man waiting for a bus in the Loyal Heights neighborhood of North Seattle, and telling him, "You don't belong here," police say.

The incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday, after the victim got off a Metro bus and waited for another bus at a stop near 15th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 85th Street, police said.

The suspect, described as a 43-year-old Hispanic man, approached the bus passenger and pulled a knife with a six-inch fixed blade from his backpack, police said.

The suspect then allegedly told the victim, "You walk any closer to me, and I'll stab you," before calling the bus passenger a racial slur, police say.

He also allegedly told the victim: "Go back to Pike Place. This is my neighborhood. You don't belong here," police said.

After the bus passenger called police, officers arrived quickly and arrested the suspect, finding four knives in his backpack, a police report said.

The suspect claimed to arresting officers that the victim had caused altercation when he "started talking black... to me" and tried fighting him, the report said.

The suspect was being held without bail today at the King County Jail for investigation of felony malicious harassment.