When A Bearded Drifter Snaps

In 2011 my mom and dad came to visit my wife and I in the Seattle area and we found ourselves doing many quintessential Seattle things (Pike Place Market, Zoo, Aquarium).  This visit also brought us to The Space Needle twice; once in the day and once at night.  My wife, my dad, and I went to the top of the needle both times but my mom didn't because she's afraid of heights.

During the daytime visit to the top we were walking around the outside portion of the observation deck and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  I saw a homeless looking guy with a HUGE backpack on his back, a beard, and a stench walking around and thought nothing of it (he looked like a combination of Zach Galifianakis and a backpacker with poor hygiene).

Suddenly a minute later I hear a man's voice yell "you little bitch!  Fuck you!  I'll kill all of you!" and I go into fight or flight mode as I grab my wife and head inside to find my dad while I tried to keep poop from entering my pants.  We found my dad quickly and we looked out the window to the outside portion of the deck to see the bearded man giving crazy eyes and fake punching people in a way where he would stop his fist as close to their faces as possible.  He also supplied sound effects as he fake punched them (bop, bop, bop, bop, bop!).

The only thing I could think is "what's in the backpack?".  They have guys that check bags before you enter, but the probability of human error can be unsettling.  We tried to go toward the elevator only to realize that they were not allowing anybody to go down or up until the conflict was resolved.  We looked outside to see the man surrounded by Space Needle security with his hands on his knees and his torso swaying up and down while breathing heavily.

In the end the man was subdued and taken down the elevator and put into the back seat of a cop car.  From what we've seen of our justice system he's probably back on the outside wearing his backpack at tourist attractions again.  Whether he is reformed or just another ticking time bomb is a big question but an even bigger one is this, what did the "little bitch" say or do that made him snap that day?

Lesson:  People like this usually show warning signs and need to be helped long before they snap and threaten to kill people (or worse, follow through on it).  If you notice the warning signs, tell somebody.