Man Charged In Murder Of Brooklyn MTA Bus Driver
As you know by know, a heartless bastard & non-paying rider murdered a Brooklyn bus driver on Monday afternoon after he was refused a transfer. Although nothing can bring the driver back, it is nice to know that the bastard Horace Moore was brought to justice. He confessed yesterday & was charged with murder. 1010 Wins has more in this report:
New York City police say a 20-year-old man has confessed to the fatal stabbing of a bus driver who was attacked in front of horrified passengers.
Police say Horace Moore, of Brooklyn, was charged with murder Tuesday after witnesses identified him in a lineup. Moore was taken in the previous evening for questioning after investigators tracked him down at his girlfriend’s apartment.
Police say 46-year-old Edwin Thomas was driving a B-46 bus when Moore boarded through the exit door and sat down. Thomas initially denied him a transfer slip because he didn’t pay for the ride, but then gave him one before following Moore off the bus and arguing with him on the street.
Police say Thomas was punched in the head and then got back on the bus. Moore then followed him onto the bus, stabbed him, then fled.
Thomas was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, and Moore fled on foot, police said.
Passenger Benjamin Stacking told television reporters that he heard the commotion.
“It’s crazy because the bus driver was cool,” Stacking said. “He let me on. I was 50 cents short. He let me on and gave me a transfer. No reason to stab a bus driver if you are broke or have no money and can’t get a transfer. No reason to stab a person.”
Click here for the complete report.
As I stated yesterday, all bus drivers face many dangers while transporting riders from one destination to another. Sewell Chan (with contributions from Martin Espinoza & Joel Stonington) of The New York Times looked into the dangers bus drivers face in this report:
The fatal stabbing of a New York City bus driver, Edwin Thomas, by a passenger who did not pay the fare, sat down anyway, and later demanded a transfer ticket has called new attention to the phenomenon of fare evasion on buses.
In the early 1990s, the Police Department cracked down on fare evasion in the subways, catching more serious criminals along the way. The police now acknowledge that bus-fare evasion is a problem.
A new initiative to fight bus-fare evasion by placing police officers on the most problematic bus routes began on Oct. 22 and has resulted so far in 86 arrests and 349 summonses, according to Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s top spokesman.
But bus drivers say that the instructions for how to deal with nonpaying passengers are confusing. Other drivers say they have sometimes been so intimidated by passengers that they have given away transfer tickets even though they were not supposed to.
Charles F. Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit, the arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that operates the subways and buses, said in a phone interview that if the passenger refuses to pay or cannot pay, the driver is supposed to remind the passenger of the correct fare ($2) but may not try to physically throw the rider off the bus.
Some drivers have been known to threaten to keep the bus stopped until a nonpaying or belligerent passenger gets off. But on a crowded bus at peak periods, it is practically impossible to stop operating the bus or threaten to do so.
Drivers do not have a direct line to the police. The radio in each bus connects them to a command center, where dispatches can contact law enforcement, if necessary.
Mr. Browne, the police spokesman, acknowledged that while the Police Department’s Transit Bureau has more than 2,000 officers dedicated to the subway system, there are no officers dedicated to buses (except for those working on special assignments like the current fare-evasion crackdown). But Mr. Browne pointed out that tens of thousands of police officers are on the streets each day and are available to respond if a bus driver or passenger needs help.
Unlike buses, subways require dedicated officers because “you have the size of the population underground, a concentrated population in a confined area,” Mr. Browne said.
On the B46 bus line today — the same line Mr. Thomas was working when he was killed — a driver was seen pressing a button on the driver’s side of the fare box for each passenger who boarded and refused to pay.
Click here for the complete report.
I am glad that The New York Times took the time to focus on the dangers bus drivers face on a daily basis. It is a shame that it took a driver’s death to highlight what many should have already known & understood.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Comments
We blacks, used to complain about the KKK. Well they are now on unemployment Benefits, we(blacks) have replaced them…If you say, black is beautiful, then kill your brother or sister, you`re not happy with being black. Being that we, have no love for each other, the NYCPD, has joined in, to aid us in killing each other…Quill Depot, NYCTA…
My sympathy goes out to the victims family.I also would like us to remember that Jesus speaks about forgiveness and we must remember that only he can make everything ok.