Suspect in shooting of Metro bus rider released from jail

A woman who police say shot a man on a downtown Seattle sidewalk Saturday after an argument on a Metro bus was released from jail Monday afternoon while prosecutors continue to mull over any charges in the case.

The 30-year-old community college student, who lives in Yesler Terrace, was initially ordered held on $200,000 bail by a King County District Court judge Monday.

But prosecutors then said they would need longer than the 72-hour deadline to review the case and decide on charges.

Arrestees can be held in jail for only 72 hours without being formally charged with a crime.

Prosecutors said the woman has prior convictions for firearm brandishing and assault in Utah in 1996 and 1997. She has no record of crime here, and a public defender told the judge the woman has lived here for about a decade.

Meanwhile, the man she allegedly shot, 25-year-old Emmanuel Salters, was in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center on Monday, according to the nursing supervisor there. Prosecutors said the bullet had nicked Salters' aorta and he was on a ventilator.

The woman was riding a No. 27 bus with her partner and four children just after noon Saturday when Salters climbed aboard and an argument ensued about Salters' unnerving behavior, police reports said.

When the woman and her family got off the bus, Salters followed them and allegedly made a rude comment to the woman and spat.

The woman then pulled a pistol and fired it at Salters' chest. Salters staggered into the intersection of Third Avenue and Seneca Street and collapsed.

A FBI agent, Patrick Garry, heard the shot and saw the woman holding the gun, the police report said.

The agent ran to the scene and held her until transit police arrived.

Police later said the woman has a concealed-weapon permit for the gun.

The woman's partner, who came to the King County Jail for the bail hearing, left the courtroom in tears and declined to comment.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com