Passengers take down armed robber on Metro bus



SEATTLE -- A group of bus passengers on Monday night overpowered and held down a gunman who minutes earlier had pulled out a pistol and began robbing people on the Metro Transit bus in West Seattle, police said.

The suspect, wearing a nylon stocking mask over his face, got onto the bus at at 3rd Avenue and Pike Street in downtown Seattle, police said. He sat down and kept to himself until the bus reached the 6000 block of California Avenue SW in West Seattle, when he stood up, pulled out a handgun and began pointing it at people's heads and robbing them, police said.

"The suspect had taken the personal property from at least three people when a group of male passengers confronted the suspect and tackled him to the floor, holding him down until officers arrived," the Seattle Police Department crime blotter said.

No one was injured.

Police said the 19-year-old suspect was placed initially in the back of a police squad car, but after he kicked out the plexiglass window partition in the back seat, he was transferred to a prisoner transport van.

The suspect was booked into the King County Jail on three counts of suspicion of armed robbery. Additional charges may be pending, police said.