A vicious fight between a Los Angeles bus driver and the homeless woman who attacked her was captured on cellphone video.
The Los Angeles Police Department said officers responded to the incident at about 12:40 p.m. on Sunday near Central Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard.
Witnesses said that the woman tried to get on the L.A. Dash bus without paying her fare and the bus driver refused, telling her she could not. The woman then attacked the female bus driver and dragged her off the bus from behind her plexiglass safety barrier.
Video shows the woman shoving and punching the driver, who struggles with her and yells, “Get off me!” several times.
The homeless woman was able to punch the driver at least once in the face before the driver got back on the bus and pushed the attacker off while she closed the door.
Police told KTLA that the homeless woman was later taken into custody. The bus driver was treated at the scene and was released.
Drivers protest
The altercation came just two days after bus drivers protested by organizing a “sick-out” in order to pressure officials about the lack of safety at work.
Workers with the L.A. County Metropolitan Transit Authority refused to go to work on May 3 after a series of attacks, some of which were lethal.
On April 22, a woman was stabbed to death on the Metro train by an attacker who police later said was homeless.
On April 18, a man punched a Metro bus driver without provocation and then stabbed him. The driver was treated at a hospital and released.
The organization blamed “untreated mental illness and drug addiction” for the rise in criminal incidents and told the protesting workers that a “sick-in” was against the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.
“Transit riders throughout Los Angeles County depend on the Metro Bus and Rail network every day to reach critical destinations including work, school, and medical facilities, and to care for their friends and family members,” read a statement from Metro.
“We appeal to our operators to reconsider the impact their plan to call in sick will have on some of the most vulnerable people in the county,” it added.
Here’s the video of the altercation:
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