A 22-year-old Costco employee has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder after prosecutors say he deliberately drove his sedan into a coworker’s motorcycle on July 31, killing the 20-year-old rider in a jealous rage over a female colleague. Tyler Sorensen entered the plea Thursday, Aug. 6, at his arraignment in King County, where a judge set his bail at $2 million, according to court documents.
The killing of Jonathon Langdon, a 20-year-old Costco employee, unfolded the evening of July 31 in Issaquah, Wash., after what investigators describe as a workplace fixation that turned deadly in a matter of minutes. Around 9 p.m. local time, Sorensen followed Langdon out of a Costco parking lot, swerved across lanes and rammed his sedan into the younger man’s motorcycle, sending Langdon airborne, prosecutors say.
Langdon, who was wearing a helmet, was thrown from his bike and struck a metal sign. Court filings describe the surveillance footage in unsparing detail, stating that Langdon can be seen violently hitting the signpost, his body wrapping around it before recoiling and landing face down. Despite lifesaving efforts, he died at the scene, the Issaquah Police Department (IPD) said.
A Hug That Set Off the Attack
Investigators say the confrontation was rooted in Sorensen’s obsession with a female coworker. Prosecutors allege that Sorensen followed Langdon after watching him embrace the woman, whom Sorensen was interested in. Sorensen claimed to police that she was his ex-girlfriend — an account she flatly rejected. She told detectives the two had never dated and that she had repeatedly warned Sorensen he was crossing boundaries.
Sorensen told police he became panicked and riled up after seeing the pair together. He allegedly snapped a photo of the two hugging and sent it to his friends, along with a message insisting the coworker had always told him Langdon was just a friend. In the same exchange, he allegedly wrote that his blood was boiling.
Moments after the crash, Sorensen allegedly sent another text to friends: “I f—ed up bad.”
Admissions to Detectives
Sorensen later admitted to police that he intentionally struck Langdon’s motorcycle in an act of anger, the IPD said. Though his statements to detectives were at times contradictory, he conceded the collision was deliberate, telling investigators, “It was stupid but I, I was, I meant to do it.”
The account prosecutors have pieced together suggests the violence was not a single impulsive swerve. They allege that before the fatal crash, Sorensen nearly struck both Langdon and the female coworker in the Costco parking lot. He then allegedly waited roughly 10 minutes for Langdon to leave before pulling out to follow him — a delay that undercuts any suggestion of a spontaneous outburst.
After hitting Langdon, Sorensen fled the scene and drove home, according to prosecutors. He pulled over only to inspect the damage to his own vehicle. In a jarring detail, he was stopped and issued a speeding ticket shortly after the deadly collision — an ordinary traffic citation handed to a man who, authorities say, had just left a coworker dying on the roadway.
A Father’s Intervention and the Court Case
Sorensen did not return on his own. Prosecutors say he came back to the scene about an hour after the crash only after his father learned what had happened and brought him back to surrender to authorities. That surrender set in motion the case now moving through the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
At his arraignment, Sorensen pleaded not guilty to the single count of second-degree murder. Along with setting bail at $2 million, the judge imposed strict conditions, barring Sorensen from contacting Langdon’s family, the female coworker or any eyewitnesses to the hit-and-run. He is being held at the King County Jail.
The surveillance video remains central to the state’s case. In describing the footage, the IPD said it showed the suspect vehicle striking the motorcycle and causing the rider to lose control and suffer fatal injuries — the visual record that investigators say corroborates Sorensen’s own admission of intent.
Sorensen is due back in court Aug. 27. It is unclear whether he has obtained legal representation. For Langdon, a 20-year-old who had clocked out of an ordinary shift and climbed onto his motorcycle, the encounter in the parking lot ended a life over what prosecutors describe as one coworker’s jealous fury toward another.