Bus incident on the 8 today

So this afternoon, me (F38) and my 9 year old son were on the 8 coming home from downtown, sitting opposite eachother on the two single sideways seats at the back of the bus, when a homeless guy approx.30 sitting on the back seat started yelling at me, saying I was looking at him “with disgust” and “like i thought he was going to rob me” and yelling do i have a problem etc. Now, I have RBF (low browline) and also bad eyesight/thick glasses that has a few times in my life made people think I was scowling at them when I wasn’t even consciously looking at them, and I didn’t even consciously acknowledge this person on the packed bus (like, if I was so intimidated I wouldn’t have sat right by him, would i). This is also a slightly funny assumption from him for those who know me since I was homeless for several years when I was younger and I’m certainly not the sort of person have fear struck into my heart at the sight of a man on the bus. Although I do potentially look younger than I am, and also professional now (so the looks based assumptions are all on his end funnily enough). I was kinda taken aback like…I wasn’t looking at you wtf.

Anyway, this young guy also at the back ended up cutting in and telling him to stop harassing me and stfu, which surprised me in Seattle since most people would pretend they didnt see a murder in progress, and ive always tried my best not to be that person. I appreciated someone being like…hey, I see you, and that’s not okay. So the woman in front of HIM starts yelling at HIM for starting shit and calling him “boy” and saying he was going to get himself hit (nice use of passive), rolling her eyes and him and me when, I think it was perfectly clear who the instigator and aggressor was. The guy who was yelling at me was going on about how he’s a “grown ass man who’s been in prison” and “you dont wanna know what’s in the bag” and how he was going to “kill” the other guy. A security guard eventually came up the back and tried to break it up but he was still both-sidsing everything, which is a bit much imo.

Anyway. Rant over I guess. I just wanted to say I was taken aback and taken by surprise a little, and out with my kid, and I appreciate someone sticking their neck out for me when they didn’t have to. I understand why people dont involve themselves because of the danger factor, but seen and experienced this kind of thing before, it makes you feel a little less alone.

ETA: Yeh maybe I shouldn’t sit near the back with kids (or alone since it was me who triggered him). The weren’t any other seats when we got on though and the people in the ones directly behind the sideways seats were just…regular women. And the irony being i DON’T profile people like “omg a homeless person, don’t make eye contact, they might attack!” so I didn’t register to “stay away” from the dude because he wasn’t doing anything threatening until he got upset by my face. On the previous bus, a homeless person had moved over so me and my son could sit together.