As the union representing Los Angeles Metro bus drivers demands better safeguards for its drivers, two violent, bloody incidents unfolded aboard transit buses over the weekend in less than a 24-hour span.
The first of the April 13 stabbings aboard Metro buses occurred at around 1:45 a.m. in the area of Sunset Boulevard and Benton Way in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood.
Video of the scene obtained by KTLA shows paramedics carefully lifting a blood-soaked passenger, who was suffering multiple stab wounds, off the bus and onto a gurney. The man was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
Details are limited and what led up to the grisly stabbing is unclear, but police were able to track down and arrest a suspect who fled from authorities on Benton Way north of Sunset.
Authorities have not provided an update on the victim’s condition.
Later that evening at around 8:30 p.m. in South L.A., investigators say a Metro bus driver stopped the bus at East 119th Street and Wilmington Avenue when the suspect started yelling at him and then viciously attacked him.
“The suspect, without provocation, punched the victim in the face then proceeded to stab the victim,” the Sheriff’s Department stated.
The driver’s attacker, who is now wanted for attempted murder, exited the bus and fled northbound on Wilmington Avenue.
Erika Diaz, a good Samaritan who was behind the bus when it pulled over to stop, heard the bus driver’s gut-wrenching screams for help and seconds later saw the young man in his 30s just outside her car.
“He had so much blood in his chest, no one was helping him,” Diaz told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe. “I just said, ‘Calm down, you’re going to be okay.’”
She then rushed the bus driver to a nearby hospital.
A spokesperson for the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority told KTLA that the driver has since been released and is recovering from the incident at home.
In a statement about that stabbing, Metro said in part:
“Metro is saddened to hear about this senseless act of violence against our bus operator, which was apparently fueled by drug abuse and untreated mental illness – crises that are plaguing our nation.”
Diaz, who said she’s been keeping in touch with the driver, believes his emotional recovery from the traumatic event may take longer to heal than his physical injuries.
“This is a young person that almost lost his life working,” she said.
This violence comes in the wake of an L.A. transit bus that was hijacked on March 21 by a 24-year-old man armed with what appeared to be a handgun, who caused multiple traffic collisions in downtown L.A. before crashing into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
Among the safety improvements the union representing L.A. bus drivers is demanding include:
- Full bulletproof enclosures for drivers
- Armed security officers
- Felony-level charges with a long jail sentence for anyone who assaults a Metro driver
- Silent alarms to alert police of a disturbance or live shooter
Union officials say the additional measures need to be universal and federally mandated for all transportation agencies to prevent issues like hijacking, as well as problems like the violence of last Saturday.
For its part, L.A. Metro has said that it’s adding more security bus riding teams, building more significant barriers on all buses and providing de-escalation training to bus operators.