Expand / Collapse search
☰

Police: Metrobus passenger threw cup of urine on bus driver

By fox5dc.com staff
Published  August 30, 2017 5:59pm EDT
News
FOX 5 DC

WASHINGTON - Metro Transit Police say a bus driver was assaulted after a passenger threw a cup filled with urine on her.

According to police, the incident happened Saturday at around 6:14 p.m. on the X2 Metrobus that was traveling in the area of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road in Northeast D.C.

Metro says the female passenger was about to exit the bus when the bus operator told her, "Have a nice day." The passenger responded by saying, "Are you talking to me?" With a purple cup containing urine in her hand, the passenger then doused the driver with the liquid after reaching around the shield installed on the bus aimed at protecting the bus operator.

The passenger dropped the cup as she got off the bus and ran down Benning Road, according to Metro.

(Watch the full surveillance video below. App users: Click here to watch)

Police and an ambulance were called to the scene, Metro says. The bus driver was taken to a nearby hospital to be decontaminated after the bodily fluids were poured on her, but is expected to be okay.

Metro Transit Police have released surveillance images of the female passenger and are asking for the public's help to identify her. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 301-955-5000 or text MyMTPD (696873).

ATU Local 689, the union that represents most Metro workers, said in a statement:

ATU Local 689 has been pushing Metro to make reforms on operator assaults for years. Metro's required use of operator shields on "bad" bus lines of buses --- without input from the workforce or their union --- has only insured that the issues of safety will continue to occur. Metro must take accountability for their inaction over the last 10 years and they must develop a permanent solution to this increasingly dangerous problem now. A disgusting act like the one on Saturday can not only endanger the operator, but also endanger everyone on that bus. Unnecessarily placing workers and the riding public in danger is never acceptable when Metro can and should do more.