Commuter describes seeing man jump on cars, rip off sunroof, attack officer

Tired workers leaving downtown Seattle last Thursday evening did not expect to be in the middle of a rush-hour rampage on Second Avenue and Spring Street.

But that’s exactly what happened when a man began jumping on the tops of cars and attacking a parking enforcement officer with a car’s sunroof.

Sammamish resident Matt Reynolds captured part of the sequence of events in a Twitter video that garnered over 200,000 views (warning: explicit language).

He had just pulled out of the garage at work and was stopped at a light when he noticed a man jump from the top of one vehicle to another in front of him.

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The next thing Reynolds knew, the jumper was on his own car.

“He landed on the hood and fell into my windshield, at which point he got up real quickly, jumped onto my roof, jumped up and down a few times like a gorilla, like he was trying to break the glass because the whole entire roof is made of glass,” Reynolds told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “I think he wanted to get in the car.”

In shock and in fear for his safety, Reynolds was prepared to jump out, run away, and surrender his Tesla to the jumper if he made it through the glass.

Luckily, the glass held up, though the Tesla suffered over $10,000 in damage.

The jumper then leaped onto two more cars, “like an Avenger going from car to car,” as Reynolds described.

He ripped a sunroof off of the second car with his bare hands.

“That’s something I didn’t even know you could do,” Reynolds commented. “And he did it with ease, like he had done this before.”

Reynolds’ video begins here. Viewers can see as the attacker uses the torn sunroof to hit a parking enforcement officer who tried to intervene. According to the police report, the perpetrator allegedly tried to gouge the officer’s eye with his finger.

“At that point, the community kind of banded together,” Reynolds said. “It took five or six very large grown men to hold this man down.”

He was very grateful for the workers and tourists alike who risked their own well-being to tear the assaulter off the officer.

“The second that the officer seemed like he was not doing well, everyone just dropped their backpacks, their work-bags, whatever it was, and helped support this poor officer who was literally getting beaten up,” Reynolds said.

The Good Samaritans were able to hold the man down until police arrived and arrested him.

While the King County prosecutor originally asked for $100,000 bail, a judge lowered it to $50,000. As a result, the man is now out on the streets again.

“It really makes me concerned for my own safety … it’s scary,” Reynolds said, adding, “It’s insane that you can assault an officer — albeit a traffic officer — and get your bail reduced, when people have $100,000, $200,000 for drug offenses that are non-violent.”

After being thrown into the rush-hour rampage, Reynolds wants to see the city of Seattle enact certain changes to make the streets safer for everyone.

“I really hope that the city can figure out how to hopefully get itself together and offer better services so that people like this get the help they truly need,” he said.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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