A Nebraska bus driver brutally attacked and dragged a passenger off a bus for allegedly asking too many questions.
Troy Fischer, 43, was fired from the StarTran Bus Service after the March 23 incident. He has been cited on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.
In a video released by the city of Lincoln, Neb., Fischer can be heard reprimanding the lone passenger after he asked a question about the bus route. Police say the rider was new to the area.
“What did I say about the next question you ask me?” Fischer says before aggressively telling his passenger to get off the bus.
Fischer stops driving, shoves the man onto a seat and punches him in the head and chest 18 times.
“Done? Huh?” Fischer asks.
The bus driver grabs the man’s jacket and drags him out the front door of the vehicle, leaving him on the side of the road.
“I put him off the bus,” he tells his supervisor over the radio. “It wasn’t pretty.”
Miki Esposito, director for the city’s Public Works and Utilities Department, said Fischer was fired after a disciplinary hearing that allowed him to rebut the allegations.
Esposito called Fischer’s actions reprehensible, the Journal Star reports.
“This type of behavior is not, cannot and will not be tolerated by the city of Lincoln,” she said.
Esposito said that the bus driver had notified his supervisor about an unruly passenger before the attack started.
The supervisor told Fischer to give his passenger two options — either leave voluntarily or answer to the police.
Instead of following instructions, Fischer took matters into his own hands.
After exploding at his passenger, Fischer can be heard on the video asking his supervisor whether he could erase the surveillance footage.
The supervisor, suspecting that something was amiss, told Fischer to abandon his route and come back to the garage.
The bus driver had worked for the StarTran company for four years. During that time, he was only cited for a traffic violation.
“There were no warnings or red flags,” Esposito said.
Investigators have not been able to locate the passenger since the day of the attack.
With the Associated Press
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