DART Bus Driver Attacked After Waking Passenger

Driver suffers minor injuries in scuffle

A bus passenger was arrested Tuesday night after official say he assaulted a DART bus driver.

According to DART, the bus driver reached his last stop near Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch and was attacked after he tried to wake a sleeping passenger, 23-year-old Gerrette Aboumrad, the last person on his bus.

After being roused, the man became irate and fought with the bus driver while continually saying that he had been asleep.

The altercation lasted several minutes and was recorded by Michael Ayodele, who told NBC 5 he was at the school to pick up his brother when he saw something going on aboard the bus. 

Ayodele stepped on board the bus and saw the driver and passenger fighting. As the driver struggled, punched and wrestled with the passenger, Ayodele caught the whole thing on camera. (The video can be seen here. Warning, offensive language.)

"I pull out my cellphone every time something different happens in life," said Ayodele.

After backup arrived, Aboumrad was subdued and placed under arrest.  He has since been charged with assault of a public officer.

The bus driver, a 10-year employee of DART, suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized.  He has been placed on leave while DART and the Dallas police investigate the incident. DART said they are reviewing Ayodele's video but believe, so far, that the driver did nothing wrong and added that he can be heard asking the passenger to stop.

Even before this incident took place, DART was making strides to make their buses safer, including equipping all new buses with security cameras so that investigators will always have a video record of an incident on board a bus.

Those new buses will begin rolling out this spring.

NBC 5's Ray Villeda contributed to this report.

Contact Us