Los Angeles Metro officials are meeting Thursday after three people were violently attacked in the past week aboard public buses and trains.
Despite spending millions of dollars on efforts to secure public transportation and numbers showing a decrease in violent crime on the transit system, the dilemma of how to stop the trend of gruesome attacks on passengers and Metro operators has prompted officials to declare an emergency.
“Incidents have occurred with no prompting or warning and have created an environment of increased risk and trauma as assailants are resorting to the use of deadly weapons such as guns and knives. Given this crisis situation, it is imperative that Metro retrofit all buses with fully enclosed barriers,” a senior official stated.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced Elliot Tramel Nowden, 45, the man who allegedly stabbed 67-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz to death inside a train, is being charged with murder.
“If convicted as charged, he faces life without the possibility of parole. He’s being held on no bail,” Gascón said during a news conference. “We want to express our deepest condolences to Mrs. Arauz’s family. This is truly a tragedy. This should never have occurred.”
The grandmother from Nicaragua was taking a Metro train home from her job as an overnight security guard when she was stabbed in the throat in an unprovoked attack as the train was headed to the Universal City station.
Nowden has been arrested multiple times in the past year for assaulting people at the same station.
Monday’s slaying comes about a week after a Metro bus passenger and operator were stabbed in unrelated incidents on the same day.
The first attack on April 13 occurred around 1:45 a.m. in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood.
Video of the scene obtained by KTLA showed 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.
Police were able to track down and arrest a suspect who fled from authorities.
Later that night a bus operator was punched and stabbed on a Metro bus in another unprovoked attack in Willowbrook.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of 30-year-old suspect Darnell Marshon Bray in connection with the attack Wednesday night.
Bray was being held on $2 million bail, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
That attack prompted the emergency declaration and push for the barriers around operators to be installed as quickly as possible.
Metro’s Board of Directors scheduled a meeting Thursday to discuss the motion.