YouTube video eyed for clues in bus attack: VIDEO HERE

YouTube video eyed for clues in bus attack

By Richard Weir and Laura Crimaldi  |   Wednesday, April 13, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

T Police are analyzing a YouTube video of the chaotic aftermath of Monday’s MBTA bus crash as they continue their criminal probe into the gang attack on a bus driver who was pummeled after asking a group of young male passengers to stop smoking.

“We’re certainly taking a good, hard look at that video and others,” said a police source with knowledge of the investigation, who described one of the men seen in the clip “as a person of interest.”

Police said yesterday they had made no arrests in the assault on the 39-year-old driver, who lost control of his bus, which jumped a curb, knocked down a crosswalk pole, rammed a vacant barbershop and pinned the foot of a man whom cops suspect was with the group that attacked the driver. It took firefighters with a hydraulic jack 40 minutes to free the teen, who was cheered by onlookers as he left on a stretcher.

“We have a very active investigation. We’re interviewing all witnesses. It was a crowded bus,” said Transit Deputy Police Chief Lewis Best.

The bus driver called for police help just before he was jumped, according to radio calls released yesterday.

“I got a situation I need to deal with right away . . . I got a couple of unruly passengers. I got a couple of kids smoking cigarettes. I’m at Dudley Street and Hammond Street. Please get ‘em down here right away,” the unidentified driver told a Bus Operations Control Center operator.

Moments later, he told the operator: “I was just assaulted. Got knocked out. Got my head smashed into the window. I’m still at the same location. There’s a kid with his foot underneath the bus. About 10 of these kids jumped me.”

A passenger who called 911 said, “He’s being assaulted by a bunch of teenagers on the bus. . . . They were hitting them. I left the bus because they were smoking. I have asthma.” After the 911 operator told the woman police were en route, she said, “Oh my God. It was unbelievable.”

Monday’s attack comes among a rise in assaults on T bus and subway operators, with 66 total assaults reported in 2010, including 31 against bus drivers, compared with 58 overall assaults in 2009, including 29 against bus drivers. And assaults this year are on pace to exceed last year’s, with 20 reported so far, 10 of which involved bus drivers.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1330308