MARYSVILLE – Jeremy Gredvig of Marysville knows he’s lucky to be alive, but he wishes he could have done more to help a random-shooting victim who isn’t.

Wayne H. Alpert, 59, of Lynnwood is being held on $1 million bail after allegedly shooting Seaton J. Baker of Marysville eight times, killing him. Alpert was charged Friday with murder and assault in the second degree.

Just prior to the shooting, Alpert reportedly brandished a gun at Gredvig after they both got off a Community Transit bus.

Gredvig said he didn’t do the smart thing, but he thinks it caught Alpert by surprise.

“I charged at him, and he backed away,” Gredvig said June 22. Gredvig said he has led a rough life, living on the streets of Reno at age 15. “In that kind of world, it’s a you or me mentality,” he said. “I was going to take the gun from him and shoot him.”

According to Gredvig:

Problems started on the bus coming home from work at Silver Lake. The man he later found out was Alpert walked to the front of the bus and started talking to a couple with two small kids. The bus driver said Alpert was blocking his view, and Alpert started yelling at the driver. “I told him to calm down because he was scaring the kids,” Gredvig said.

He added Alpert fidgeted, was agitated and “high,” and was talking gibberish to strangers.

Alpert apologized and when Gredvig moved to the front to get off as they neared Comeford Park Alpert apologized again.

They both got off the bus, Gredvig heading to the park where his daughter was waiting. Alpert walked toward Taco Time, “Mouthing off and talking crap. I was done,” Gredvig said.

He started walking toward Alpert, the man took a pistol out of a backpack, and a bullet came out of the chamber when he cocked it, Gredvig said, adding as he charged at him the man ran off.

“I caught him off-guard,” Gredvig said.

He called 9-1-1, and police were there in a minute. He filled out a report.

Gredvig said police arrived just as the man was walking away, so he was surprised he wasn’t caught.

“He just vanished,” Gredvig said, adding even a canine “lost the scent.”

Baker lived in an apartment building about 12 blocks away at 73rd Place NE, just east of the police station. Baker just asked the man to leave the neighborhood because he was pointing a gun in the air.

The suspect was found sitting on a curb, with a 9-mm handgun nearby. He was arrested without incident, telling officers, “I shot him,” court documents say.

Later, he told police, “The guy didn’t deserve to die,” according to court records.

Marysville police Cmdr. Mark Thomas said the suspect has been booked into the Snohomish County Jail in Everett on suspicion of second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

Later, when Gredvig found out Baker had been shot to death, allegedly by Alpert, within a half-hour of their confrontation, Gredvig went home and “kissed his wife and gave his children some love.”

He said he should have done less because he has a good life now with a wife, family, job. “I’m grateful to be alive,” he said. “I wish I could have stopped him. My heart goes out to his (Baker’s) family.”

Gredvig said the man was upset about being stuck in Everett for four hours.

“He was on a mission. Somebody was going to pay for his bad day,” Gredvig said, adding he wished the man just would have calmed down.

“Somebody died for no reason,” he said.

Baker, 59, was born April 21, 1958, and died June 11, 2017. Arrangements are under the direction of Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home in Marysville.