Federal Way man charged with assault in bus stop shooting

A 46-year-old Federal Way man faces charges of first-degree assault and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm for allegedly shooting a man in both arms at bus stop along Pacific Highway South near Kent Des Moines Road.

Shawn Antoine Austin is scheduled to be arraigned April 14 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. As of Friday, April 1 he remained in custody at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle. Prosecutors have requested for bail to be set at $500,000.

Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jennifer Phillips requested the high bail because she wrote in charging documents that Austin is likely to commit another violent offense, is unlikely to abide by conditions of release and likely to fail to appear. Austin has 10 prior felony convictions.

At about 4:43 a.m. March 28, Des Moines Police were dispatched to what the 911 caller said was a man ringing their doorbell while asking for help. Officers found the man and he had gunshot wounds to both arms. The man, in his early 50s, said he did not know the shooter but could identify him. Paramedics transported the man to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Police also were dispatched at 4:45 a.m. to a shooting at a King County Metro bus stop northbound on Pacific Highway South, just north of Kent Des Moines Road. A man had a grazing gunshot wound across his chest. He was treated and released at scene.

Police determined both men who were shot and the shooter had been on the bus, according to charging papers. Security video from inside and outside the bus captured the shooting

Video surveillance showed a tall man selecting a seat and several minutes after sitting down removes a black pistol from his jacket. The man exits the bus in the 23000 block of Pacific Highway South. In the area of the rear doors, the man watches several passengers leave the bus. He then raises the pistol with his right hand and fires a round at a man as he exits the bus. He then fires two more shots.

About 13 hours after the shooting, police were dispatched to reports of a man brandishing a gun at the intersection of South 272nd Street and Pacific Highway South. Witnesses said the man boarded a bus.

Kent Police stopped the bus. A handgun was tossed out the coach’s rear doors.

Des Moines Police recognized the man as the same man involved in the earlier shooting,

Austin denied to police that he had a gun or pointed it at anyone, according to charging documents. He said he did point a bottle of hand lotion at passing vehicles and people in a fashion resembling a gun. He said he wanted people to think he was pointing a gun at them because he was trying to be hit by a car.

Police recovered the gun and discovered it had been stolen in a November 2020 Seattle Police case.

A witness told police she saw the man waving the gun around at the intersection. Another witness reported seeing him throw the gun out of the bus. Video from the bus also showed him throwing the gun out the rear doors.

Austin’s prior felony convictions include retail theft with special circumstances (2017); domestic violence felony violation of a court order (2007 & 2003); assault in the third degree (2007); violation of the uniform controlled substance act (VUCSA) – solicitation to deliver (1999); VUCSA – delivery cocaine (1994); VUCSA – sale (1992).

He has a history of failing to appear and failing to abide by court orders, according to charging documents. Austin was before the court for sentencing in October 2021 and at that time he had several pending matters in Superior Court and the state offered him reductions and mental health court. From reviewing the court file in those cases, Austin struggled to abide by conditions of release and probation conditions, Phillips wrote.

”The defendant has now violently reoffended, shooting the victim in this case at close range and endangering the lives of everyone else on the bus and in the line of fire,” Phillips wrote.