Malcolm X Boulevard.

Rider Fatally Stabs City Bus Driver and Flees

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Published: December 1, 2008
A New York City bus driver was fatally stabbed in Brooklyn on Monday after refusing to give a transfer to his assailant, who had not paid his fare, the police said. Witnesses said the killer jumped off the bus, slipped the hood of his black sweatshirt over his head and ran away.

New York City Transit officials said it was the first slaying of a city bus driver in more than 27 years, although from time to time subway token-booth attendants have been attacked, some viciously. It was also the 476th homicide of the year in New York, 29 more than at this time last year. In 1981, there were more then 1,820 killings.

Investigators said the victim, Edwin Thomas, 46, driving the B46 route, was attacked at a bus stop on Malcolm X Boulevard at Gates Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant shortly after 12:30 p.m. by a tall, thin black man about 35, who had boarded the northbound bus about half a mile away.

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Police investigators seek clues inside a B46 bus in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where Edwin Thomas was killed by a passenger on Malcolm X Boulevard.

The police said the man inserted an invalid MetroCard into the fare box two or three times, and, despite its rejection, walked back and took a seat beside a woman. The driver, following rules to avoid confrontations, said nothing. But when the man came forward and asked for a transfer at Gates Avenue, the driver refused, saying he had not paid his fare and was not entitled to one.

Enraged, the assailant punched Mr. Thomas twice in the head, witnesses said. He then stepped off the bus. The driver was about to close the door behind him when the man suddenly turned, stepped back onto the bus, pulled out a knife with a slashing motion and drove the blade repeatedly into the driver’s chest and torso.

Passengers screamed and some scrambled forward as the assailant leapt off the bus and ran east on Gates Avenue. Karen Webb, 45, was standing nearby and saw the killer getting away.

“He slipped his hoodie over his head and started running,” Ms. Webb recalled. “He’s skinny and tall, and he ran down the block real quick.” She said that two men from the bus gave chase, but could not keep up.

Mr. Thomas, a native of Haiti who lived in Brooklyn, was the father of an 18-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter and had worked as a city bus driver for seven years. He was taken to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 1:11 p.m.

Rewards totaling $36,000 — $12,000 each by the police, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union — were posted for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

In addition to interviewing witnesses aboard the bus, investigators said they would examine the fare box to determine if any data from the killer’s MetroCard, especially its serial number, had been recorded. If so, it could provide such information as where the card was bought and where it had been used, and those details might lead to videos at subway stations or to the drivers of buses the killer had taken.

While some city buses are equipped with video cameras, transit officials said that Mr. Thomas’s bus, No. 9666, was not. But detectives said they would remove the bus’s doors and examine them and areas around the driver’s seat for fingerprints.

Gov. David A. Paterson, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and transit and union officials deplored the attack on Mr. Thomas and expressed condolences to his family.

Howard H. Roberts Jr., the president of New York City Transit, said it was the first killing of a city bus driver since Oct. 10, 1981, when Harvey Shild, 28, operating a B44 bus in Brooklyn, was shot to death under remarkably similar circumstances, slain by a passenger angered by the driver’s refusal to give him a transfer.

Transit officials said that 74 city bus drivers had been assaulted through September this year. Bus crimes dropped sharply in 1969 when the city installed exact-change boxes, and the use of MetroCards in recent years, which further limited on-board money, kept crime low.

Elliot G. Sander, executive director of the transportation authority, said Mr. Thomas worked out of the Flatbush depot, not driving a regular route, but filling in on any route where he was needed. At the depot, Kahliel White, 46, a driver for 22 years, said Mr. Thomas had been well liked. “Out of 600 drivers, you couldn’t find one who didn’t like him,” he said. “He always had a smile on his face. If there was overtime, he was working it. If they needed him, he’d never say no.”

On Monday, Mr. Thomas drove the B46 route, which snakes from Marine Park to Washington-WilliamsburgBridge Plaza, a 12-mile stretch along Flatbush Avenue, Fulton Street, Malcolm X Boulevard and Broadway that runs through East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg. The trip takes about 80 minutes.

He had driven two-thirds of the route when the killer boarded at Fulton and Malcolm X. After his fare card was rejected, he moved wordlessly back into the bus and rode up to Gates Avenue, where the killing occurred.

“Over a transfer,” Ms. Webb said, incredulously. “That’s stupid.”

Her mother, Josie Webb, agreed. “It was nice enough for the bus driver to let him on for free,” she said. “It’s senseless. It’s cruel. It’s going to be terrible for the family.”

NYC Transit

Edwin Thomas, 46, was killed.

In Spring Valley, N.Y., the victim’s son, Jeffrey Thomas, and daughter, Edley Thomas, described their father as a caring man who was dedicated to his job and rarely missed a day’s work. The children’s mother and Mr. Thomas divorced years ago, and Mr. Thomas never remarried, his son said.

“He was a good dad; he always looked out for me,” Jeffrey Thomas said, adding that he and his father were “like the best of friends. We shared all our secrets and laughter.”

Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, Sewell Chan, Ann Farmer, David Giambusso, William Neuman, Nate Schweber and Karen Zraick.