King County woman suffers concussion after alleged attack at SeaTac Light Rail Station

A King County woman said she suffered a concussion after she was allegedly attacked by a man at the SeaTac Light Rail Station.

On Tuesday, just after 7:30 p.m., King County deputies received a call about an assault at the SeaTac Light Rail Station.

Jessica Shupe told KIRO 7 News that she was walking across the sky bridge to head home from work when a man suddenly attacked her.

“I got hit unprovoked with a gallon of water,” she said.

Shupe said the man, dressed in a blue hoodie and blue jeans, hit her with a jug of water as he was walking towards her.

“He hit me so hard he fell over. A grown man on drugs,” she said. “He hit me so hard he fell over and then in self-defense, I started kicking him.”

Shupe said the attack left her with a concussion and several bruises.

Her nose began bleeding the following morning, which she believes was caused by the attack, she added.

Shupe said this is the second time she was attacked at the SeaTac Light Rail Station in a span of four months.

King County deputies said no arrests have been made in Tuesday’s incident.

A spokesperson for Sound Transit said surveillance video shows Shupe defending herself after the man attacked her.

Shupe said she was upset with security’s response.

“The security just stood there,” she said. “Security let the man that assaulted me on the light rail going north.”

“They’re not doing their job. They’re turning a blind eye. Our taxpaying money is getting wasted in my opinion,” Shupe told KIRO 7 News.

“It’s just scary. My main concern was her safety because I didn’t know how bad it was,” Emilee Shupe, sister, said after she had received a text from her sister about the alleged attack. “I try to keep my phone really close especially when she’s on the light rail on the way home or going to work.”

KIRO 7 News reached out to Sound Transit about security’s response and to get more details about its safety measures.

Officials said the security guard learned about the incident after the victim was being treated by first responders.

It’s not clear if the suspect had already left the scene at this point, they added.

“Our protocol is that security guards should only restrain individuals who present an immediate physical danger to themselves or someone else. The guards’ first priority is to attend to the needs of the victim,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Security guards are also not armed, officials said.

Sound Transit’s board approved four security contracts in 2023 to invest $250 million over six years.

The additional resources have added more than 550 security guards, which is more than triple the number of security guards the agency had prior to the four new contracts in 2023, officials said.

“We instituted a FAST team that has cut response time to incidents in half, and we just started a bike unit, which gives guards the mobility they need for rapid response,” they wrote.