The 26-year-old woman arrested earlier this week in connection with the Jan. 24 stabbing death of a Lynnwood man in the Lynnwood Fred Meyer parking lot has been identified in charging documents filed with the Snohomish Prosecuting Attorney’s office.
Shayla Baylor is facing charges of second-degree murder and assault after allegedly stabbing 62-year-old Greg McKnight to death Jan. 24 during an argument in front of Fred Meyer — located in the 4600 block of 44th Avenue West in Lynnwood — before fleeing the scene.
Charging documents also provided more details via witness statements about the event that led to McKnight’s death. According to documents filed Jan. 29, McKnight– who was handicapped and using an electric scooter — finished shopping and exited the store around noon, heading to his vehicle parked in a nearby handicapped-accessible stall.
However, a Fred Meyer employee said McKnight was unable to get into his vehicle because another vehicle — a silver Nissan Sentra later identified as the vehicle associated with the suspect — was illegally parked and too close to his vehicle for him to get inside.
At one point, the employee said he saw Baylor exit the front passenger side of the Nissan, leaving the door open, further blocking McKnight’s way. After McKnight closed the door to the Nissan, witnesses said Baylor began yelling at him not to touch the car. The confrontation began with name calling on both sides, with multiple witnesses describing Baylor as the aggressor.
As McKnight turned his back on the suspect and attempted to get into his vehicle, prosecutors said another witness — a nurse — saw Baylor crouching and “wielding an object that appeared to be approximately a foot in length in her right hand” and thrusting it at the back of McKnight’s leg. According to a witness, when McKnight turned around, Baylor maintained a “predatory stance” while repeatedly thrusting the knife at the victim’s legs.
Then, Baylor and the vehicle’s three other occupants – which included a young child — fled the scene in the Nissan, charging documents said.
McKnight was transported to Harborview Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries. During the autopsy, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office identified three cuts to the back of his legs — two, 2- to 3-inch shallow cuts on his right leg, and one on the back of his left leg that was approximately 4 inches long and 5.5 inches deep. According to the medical examiner, the latter cut severed the victim’s femoral artery, causing him to bleed out at the scene.
Over the following days, police tracked the suspect’s information to a Lynnwood hotel where she had previously been staying. Baylor was arrested Monday in the Oakland, Calif. area and is currently behind held in the Santa Rita Jail awaiting transfer to Snohomish County. She is facing charges of second-degree murder, and first-, second- and third-degree assault.
Two other individuals who were with Baylor were questioned, but police have made no other arrests at this time.
–By Cody Sexton
Headline should have read, “26 year old woman strikes a 62 year old handicapped man who bleeds to death, allegedly.”
This is so tragic… I’m so sorry this man died in this way….
This is so sad that this man had to die this way, prayers to his family
As Americans, do we value the law? In politics AND in our dailylives. I use GoChair and we park legally in handicapped spots. So: fast forward: does perp have a record? What was she doing up here? Are ‘we’ mollycoddling people who carry weapons with (unproved) intent to kill? I have to rely on belief that the good guys outnumber the bad. Comments? ( brief please!)
Kudos to all the law enforcement officers involved in tracking down this useless individual to the Oakland CA area. Condolences to the family for this unnecessary loss of life.
This is a lesson for all of us. Instead of getting in an altercation, we need to walk away and get help. When we have issues in a private business, we can go to management. If it involves something else, it is much safer to contact 911 and leave the scene until help arrives.
We live in a world filled with mental illness and while we all want to be able to take a stand against wrongdoing, it just isn’t safe anymore. We don’t know who is carrying weapons, who is delusional and who is just plain evil.
Awhile ago a man died in Everett because he was following a car too closely and was engaged in a road rage incident with the car in front of him. The guy in front, stopped suddenly in the middle of the road, got out, walked back and shot the guy who had just rear ended him. The scariest part was the shooter had done the exact same thing many years ago and wasn’t prosecuted.
I needed this reminder and this incident can be used as a warning to all of us.
Dorian, Greg McKnight was disabled and in an electric scooter. That makes it harder “to walk away”… I’ll also add to our “lesson learned” that as a disabled person, who cannot even get in their vehicle, this type of situation can be demeaning and infuriating. Mr McKnight was trying to be independent. This deadly attack was so tragic in so many ways…
So sad to hear. I have always wondered what ever happened to Greg after high school in Walla Walla. Sad news.
Char,
My intent was not to disparage anyone who is disabled. It sounds like Mr. McKnight was quite independent in terms of getting around as well as people who don’t need a scooter. It appears that he went shopping alone and was also driving his own vehicle, which seems very independent. Allegedly, there was “name calling on both sides” with the confrontation, and Mr. McKnight was seen closing the door of the vehicle that didn’t belong to him. Those actions could be viewed as inflammatory by some. This is in no way an attempt to blame him for what happened.
As a woman, I want to be independent and empowered yet I wouldn’t go walking alone at night. I probably wouldn’t close someone else’s car door when they were yelling at me and calling me names. Inflammatory actions and verbal sparring can incite violence and I don’t recommend it for anyone.
There are many ways to be independent and empowered without putting ourselves in dangerous situations. This is one of the reasons we have police and they carry guns. They recommend that we call them rather than engaging in name calling and trying to force someone to do what we want them to do. This never ends well.
The point I was making is there are safer ways to stand up to wrong behavior and be independent without escalating the situation.
Deescalation is almost always the best course of action in any negative human encounters; a fact which is often lost with both private parties and the police. The police response in the insurrection on Jan. 6th. was a great example of how deescalation by police worked much better than escalation. Had the secret service engaged with the Vice President’s attackers, dozens of out armed attackers would have been killed by the well armed secret service. The same would have been true if Schumer and his guards had chosen confrontation over retreat and hiding. Only some luck and really good sense prevented that from being a multi casualty blood bath. Police restraint and strategy saved the day for dozens of those protesters who would have been killed and maimed otherwise along with some innocents most likely.