Teen charged with attacks on Transit

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This article was published 27/06/2022 (912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A teen has been charged with spraying a bus driver and passenger with bear mace Sunday night, in the latest violence involving city transit.

A bus driver and passenger were assaulted on a bus travelling south on Main Street at about 10:30 p.m., police said Tuesday.

A suspect had started an argument with a female passenger, causing the driver to step in. The suspect discharged the bear spray and broke the front door by kicking it.

The two victims were treated for exposure to mace.

Thirty minutes later, officers were called after bear spray was discharged on another bus, allegedly by the same suspect, before he got off and ran. Police did not reveal whether anyone was injured in the second incident.

At about midnight, officers found the suspect on the 200 block of Portage Avenue and chased him. They caught up to him at Portage and Main, where they seized about five grams of cocaine.

A 17-year-old male is charged with two counts of assault with a weapon, mischief under $5,000, possession of cocaine and three counts of failure to comply with a release order. He was detained.

“We are having problems with it,” police spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said about violence on transit, although statistics were not available.

“Overall, we’ve seen an increase in violence, in general, and therefore that will extend to public transportation as well, unfortunately.”

On June 17, three teenage girls followed a 23-year-old woman off a city bus on the 1700 block of Pembina Highway and robbed her in a random, unprovoked attack.

Two 16-year-old females and a 13-year-old female are charged.

A 55-year-old man suffered “extraordinary” injuries after an unprovoked attack while waiting for a bus in the West End on June 9.

Police officers were called to Notre Dame Avenue and Arlington Street at about 11 p.m. after numerous people witnessed the random attack.

Police said the man had wounds to his head.

Nathaniel Aaron Pittman, 26, of Winnipeg, was charged with assault causing bodily harm. He was detained in custody.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera