Nunchuk-wielding shampoo thief charged in bus-based sword attack
Seattle woman accused of chasing man with sword after chance clash on downtown bus
BY LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Published 10:59 am, Thursday, October 1, 2015
A Seattle woman fresh from jail after a nunchuk attack is now accused of chasing a stranger off a King County Metro bus – with a sword.
Facing her third assault-related charge of the year, Sharnika Joy Armstead is accused of dashing after a man who jostled her aboard a downtown bus. Armstead, a recently homeless West Seattle resident, is accused of waving a sheathed short sword at the object of her ire.
Armstead, 26, had been released from King County Jail six weeks before the Sept. 14 incident. She served a 74-day stint after bashing a two men with nunchuks during a shampoo theft from a North Seattle supermarket.
Charged Tuesday in the bus incident, Armstead is also accused of brutally beating another woman at a Belltown women’s shelter on Aug. 19. Prosecutors claim Armstead, in a “vicious and unprovoked assault,” punched the other woman repeatedly in the head to steal her makeup bag.
Armstead’s current spate of legal troubles began May 18, when she beat up two men at a Grocery Outlet store in Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood.
Armed with homemade nunchuks, Armstead attacked the store owner after she was caught stealing a bottle of shampoo from the discount grocery. Armstead bit a store employee during the fight.
Armstead was arrested at the scene and ultimately sentenced to three months in jail for the assaults. She was released July 31.
She is alleged to have seriously hurt another woman at Angeline’s Center for Homeless Women two weeks later. According to charging papers, Armstead punched the woman repeatedly in the face while stealing her makeup bag.
Armstead remained free until Sept. 14, when she is alleged to have accosted a man on a Metro Transit D Line bus.
At 2:30 p.m. that day, Armstead was sleeping on Ballard-bound bus as it approached Bell Street on Third Avenue. Another passenger apparently bumped Armstead as he sat down next to her.
Awake and upset, Armstead slapped the man in the face, according to charging papers. The man called 911 and stepped off the bus. Armstead followed.
Armstead drew what witnesses initially thought was a “stick-like object” that had been tucked down the back of her hooded sweatshirt, a King County Sheriff’s Office detective said in charging papers. Investigators claim it was actually a sheathed, 18-inch sword.
When deputies arrived to arrest her, Armstead had tucked the sword back into its hiding spot along her spine, the detective continued. Deputies reported that Armstead struggled with them during her arrest, kicking one in the chest.
Armstead has been charged with attempted second-degree assault in the bus incident. She also faces a first-degree robbery charge in the August incident at the women’s shelter. She remains jailed on $155,000 bail.
Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or
levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.
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