A man in Brooklyn became confrontational after refusing to pay his bus fare, leading to a shooting on Tuesday, April 18.
During rush hour at around 6 am in a bustling Brooklyn neighborhood, three Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Eagle Team inspectors boarded the B-82 Select express bus. This service requires passengers to purchase a paper ticket from a machine at the bus stop, which they must present upon request. While the inspectors were randomly checking for proof of payment, one passenger became irate and refused to show his ticket.
The MTA employees escorted the individual off the bus at a stop in the East New York neighborhood. As they led him to a fare machine, he suddenly turned and fired shots at them. Fortunately, there were no significant injuries, although one employee suffered a graze on the leg. Transit workers described the suspect as a man carrying a backpack.
Police later took 49-year-old Samuel White into custody, charging him with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and reckless endangerment for the incident involving the three MTA workers.
MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber reported that the MTA collaborated with the police to identify and apprehend the suspect, with bus cameras playing a crucial role in the investigation. Fare evasion has been on the rise, with MTA data indicating that nearly 40% of passengers ride without paying. While some empathize with those who cannot afford fares, such behavior is unfair to those who do pay.
The pandemic has worsened fare evasion on MTA buses, raising concerns that crackdown efforts may be insufficient to prevent future occurrences. Lieber disclosed that in the past two weeks, at least five fare evasion incidents resulted in arrests of individuals carrying loaded guns. He stated that the unarmed Eagle Team personnel had helped curb these incidents but emphasized that the agency would not tolerate fare evaders firing at MTA employees.
With the express bus fare set at $2.75 and expected to rise, there are concerns that the situation may get worse, and people are uncertain whether enough is being done to avert such incidents.