Recovering Metro bus driver says her attacker 'needs love'

When the Metro driver who was attacked aboard her bus early Saturday learned the alleged assailant was only 15, she burst into tears, her son said Monday.

"She wanted to give him a hug," said Andy Pattalochi, whose mother has five grandchildren, including one who is also 15. "She said he needs love."

A King County Juvenile Court judge on Monday ordered the 15-year-old Renton boy held in secure detention for second-degree assault, calling him a "safety risk."

According to the King County Sheriff's Office, the teen swore at the driver because she wouldn't let him and some friends off the bus through the rear doors shortly after midnight Saturday in Tukwila. The boy told the driver he would "punch her and knock her out" before he did exactly that, court paperwork alleges.

Witnesses said that the driver fell out of her seat and was bleeding heavily from her head after the attack, according to court paperwork.

Two other boys, 16 and 17, were also arrested after the incident because they broke out the rear door of the bus, police said. They have been identified as friends of the boy who allegedly attacked the driver.

The attack prompted King County Executive Dow Constantine on Monday to order Metro to determine whether the bus system can make improvements to guarantee the safety of its drivers.

"The message must be clear: Under state law, any act of violence against a bus operator is a felony crime," Constantine said in a statement.

The driver, 56 and a seven-year Metro veteran, was released from Renton's Valley Medical Center hours after the attack. She is recovering at her Seattle home, where she said Monday afternoon she was too tired to discuss the incident.

"I'll go back to driving," she said. "I don't foresee [returning] anytime soon."

Pattalochi said his mother doesn't remember the attack.

"She didn't even see it coming. She blacked out," he said.

Pattalochi, of West Seattle, asked that his mother's name not be published because she's afraid of becoming the target of additional attacks.

"She's physically really beat up and damaged," Pattalochi said. "She has a lot of swelling, bruises. Her lip is cut up, and mentally she's not doing great. She's really scared; she's scared of retribution. She's having a hard time sleeping."

Paul Bachtel, president of the bus-drivers union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587, said the driver is traumatized, but is "a strong woman."

The three teens arrested after the incident made separate appearances Monday afternoon before Juvenile Court Judge Pro Tem Kenneth Comstock.

Comstock authorized electronic home-monitoring for the two older boys, who are both accused of first-degree malicious mischief.

The 16- and 17-year-old boys could be released after their second court appearance Thursday, provided they meet eligibility criteria for electronic home-monitoring.

The mother of the 15-year-old apologized in court for the attack on the bus driver, but denied that her son was involved. She said he was on a different bus.

Comstock called the 15-year-old a "safety risk."

"You indicated you were going to punch her and knock her out and that's what you did," he told the teen.

Two of the three boys had been drinking alcohol on the night of the attack, according to Susan Harrison, a deputy prosecutor. The 15- and 16-year-olds don't have any criminal history. The 17-year-old was arrested last year on a misdemeanor, she said.

It wasn't immediately known if any of the boys would be charged as adults in connection with the attack.

A spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's Office said that charges could be filed against the three youths sometime this week.

The driver was working Route 124 shortly after midnight Saturday when she was attacked near the intersection of South 144th Street and International Boulevard in Tukwila, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Tukwila police used a dog to track the suspects to a house in the 13700 block of 45th Avenue South and detained eight people, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Witnesses identified three people who allegedly were most directly involved in the bus incident.

Bachtel, who reviewed a police report of the incident, said there appeared to be no other dispute that triggered the attack except that the driver didn't open the rear door for some of the suspects.

The rear doors were open long enough for two males to leave, but then the driver closed it, according to the report. The reason was unclear Monday.

Metro's driver regulations say that after 7 p.m., drivers should load and unload passengers only through front door. "If you have security concerns use both doors to unload," the regulations state.

Bachtel said that on Monday he urged Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond to change the rule and allow use of the rear doors at nighttime stops. It's already common practice among many drivers anyway, he said.

"When I drove the bus, I looked in the mirror, and if they [passengers] looked unsavory, I just opened the back door," Bachtel said. "Any time you feel threatened, pull the brake and open all doors. Let the problem go outside. ... That's the policy drivers learn very quickly."

Last year, there were 146 assaults on Metro drivers, which ranged from spitting to attacks that resulted in injury, said Jim Jacobson, deputy general manager for Metro. About once a month a driver is injured in an assault that requires medical care, or is confronted by an armed passenger, he said.

The total of assaults decreased 19 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, which Constantine attributes to the expansion of the transit police department — which is a branch of the King County Sheriff's Office. Bachtel, however, said the decline was due to a statistical swing not attributable to any single factor.

There are 68 Metro transit police. In addition, some buses are equipped with surveillance cameras.

Bachtel said he would like to see additional transit police, and cameras mounted on all buses that travel high-risk corridors, including Aurora Avenue North and Pacific Highway South.

The bus in Saturday morning's assault was not equipped with cameras, Jacobson said. Of the fleet of 1,300 buses, 245 have cameras, and an additional 120 will be installed by June under a federal homeland-security grant, he said.

Metro added seven or eight police last year, but that was only half the planned number, due to budget constraints. The 2010 budget keeps the count at 168.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com

Sara Jean Green: 206- 515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com