A youngster was taken into custody for the almost fatal stabbing of a Los Angeles Metro bus driver after the two engaged in a “verbal argument.”
According to authorities, a 17-year-old guy who has not been officially identified was arrested on Thursday in relation to the violent attack that occurred in the city.
After the two got into a fight outside the bus, the driver was stabbed many times at a bus stop on Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Erwin Street in the Woodland Hills district on Wednesday.
According to the authorities, the verbal altercation between the youngster and the 61-year-old driver started out over “fare evasion” before becoming out of hand.
When they both exited the bus, according to the police, the suspect is said to have stabbed the driver in the chest, neck, and back before fleeing.
The bus driver, who has not been named, was taken in critical condition to Northridge Hospital and is still there today.
“The nature of the injuries that he sustained were definitely beyond life-threatening and certainly in many other instances he would not have survived,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore after the attack.
The devastation done to one of our Metro drivers is heartbreaking, said Mayor Karen Bass, who called the attack a “heinous act of violence.”
Mayor Bass expressed his sympathy for the driver’s family and said: “I join the entire city family in praying for him tonight.” Mayor Bass had previously visited the victim in the hospital.
“For so many Angelenos, our transit operators are a part of their everyday lives – they bring our children to school, they bring us home from work and are part of the very fabric of our city, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“They do their job of getting us to where we need to go, and we must in turn do our job of keeping them safe.
“Safety on Metro is a top priority, and I will redouble my efforts as Mayor and as a Metro Board member to keep transit riders and workers safe.”
The suspect was characterized as a white man with blonde curly hair who was wearing a red t-shirt and black trousers and carrying a black backpack at the time of the attack, according to video that the authorities were able to get after the attack.
