A Minneapolis man was charged Wednesday with the beating of a Metro Transit bus driver that was captured by a passenger on video — footage that "disgusted" the transportation agency.
Sterling V. Smith, 26, was charged with third-degree assault and obstructing the operation of a transit vehicle. Smith remains jailed ahead of his first court appearance Thursday.
The video, widely shared on social media, captured the afternoon assault on a driver in north Minneapolis, along with the laughter of a female passenger. No one on the bus attempted to intervene.
"When we saw the video on Facebook, we were disgusted," said Metro Transit Bus Transportation Director Christy Bailly.
According to the criminal complaint, three women boarded the Route 5F bus at Emerson and 15th avenues N. midafternoon on April 10. The driver, who has not been identified, asked one of them to stop swearing and when she failed to respond, he called dispatch and asked police to come and remove her.
Another woman on the bus approached the driver and asked why the bus wasn't moving. At that point, the woman accused of swearing said the driver had made racial comments. The driver was white, the woman black, according to Metro Transit police.
The second woman called Smith, her boyfriend, and told him the bus' location. Smith, who lives nearby, got on the bus and struck the seated driver in the head with a flurry of punches. Smith also kneed the driver in the head, the complaint states. The driver activated his alarm, and Smith fled.
Officers arrived and saw that the driver had blood on his nose and upper lip, a cut to his right eyelid and scrapes on his forehead. He said he was suffering from double vision, the complaint said.
