Carmelita Mullen pulled her 40-foot-long Metrobus to a stop near the Congress Heights station.
Five young men, wearing hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps that made it difficult to see their faces, waited to board.
D.C. police are looking for help identifying the two people in this surveillance video in connection with a fatal shooting on a Metrobus on Oct. 20. The shooting took place around 12:08 a.m. in the 2100 block of Alabama Ave. SE. Update Jan. 19: The two suspects were arrested in Florida as a result of this video’s release. (No audio).
“I don’t like a group like that,” said Mullen, a petite presence behind the bus’s huge steering wheel, as she prepared to open the door. “There’s so many of them. Seems like they’re up to no good.
“It kinda makes you nervous. There’s no secret; things happen over here.”
The men piled onto Mullen’s bus and went on their way after riding for a few stops. Nothing happened. But recent violence aboard buses has drivers such as Mullen clamoring for protection — and police pursuing ways to increase safety.
Drivers, who say they have been targeted when they try to enforce rules or people don’t want to pay fares, have been spat upon, cursed, punched, pepper-sprayed and grabbed by the throat, police say. In one case, a woman beat up a bus operator at the Capitol Heights station after she was asked to fold a child’s stroller.
Police and union officials have developed guidelines on how bus operators should respond to violence. One of them is: Open the doors and evacuate if there’s an active shooting.
That’s not far-fetched. In October, a passenger died after he was shot in the face on a Metrobus.
Metro said police have increased patrols. Twenty-two members of a special enforcement unit regularly ride buses in uniform and plainclothes. (There were three riding aboard Mullen’s bus whom she didn’t know about.)
The transit authority is also considering installing barriers between drivers and passengers. Officials had proposed installing 250 shields made of aluminum and clear polycarbonate. The shields, which cost $1,500 to $2,500 each, depending on the type of bus, close like gates after operators are buckled into their seats. Riders can talk to the operators through small holes in the top part of the shield.
The transit authority scaled back the plan after some board members questioned whether that would alarm riders.
“We want our bus operators to feel safe,” said D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), who is a member of the Metro board. But “I’m uncomfortable with the notion” of the shields. “I’m not sure how the actual assaults justify walling off the bus drivers. I’m not sure a case has been made.”
Officials now expect to roll out shields on 100 buses this winter and spring as a test, assigning the vehicles to the Bladensburg and Four Mile bus divisions, and areas where there have been attacks on operators.
“We think of this as a low-cost way to gauge effectiveness, as well as employee and customer reaction, before advancing a wider rollout,” said Dan Stessel, Metro’s chief spokesman.
Optional shields
Some riders say they see the need for the shields and fear for the safety of drivers.
On a recent afternoon, passengers riding on the U5, which runs from near the Minnesota Avenue Station to areas around Benning Road, said they support the idea.
“I think it is wonderful,” said Audrey Cockeran, 77, who lives in Southeast Washington. “Because if the driver is not protected, then we’re not protected. It starts with the bus operator. . . . He doesn’t have too much self-defense against four or five teenagers or a drunk who comes after him. I’ve heard drivers say, ‘Put your cigarette out.’ And they don’t do nothing but fuss and curse at him.”
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