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Suspect In Bus Driver Assault Leaves Phone Behind, Returns To Crime Scene

BURLINGTON (CBS) – Transit police say they arrested a 21-year-old man on Saturday who tried to strangle a bus driver and then came back to the scene of the crime because he left his phone behind.

Officers responded to the Middlesex Turnpike in Burlington at about 3:30 p.m. for a report of an MBTA bus driver being assaulted.

According to police, a man got on the bus at Alewife station and told the driver he wanted to get off as it traveled through the Burlington Mall. When the bus driver told him to wait until they reached the next stop that was only a minute away, the man reportedly started screaming, kicked the door and windows and grabbed the driver by the throat and yelled "Do you want to die?"

He then let go of the driver's neck and ran off the bus, authorities said.

Fortunately for police, the man didn't take his phone with him. When he came back to get it, he was arrested and identified as Daniel Koolick, of Burlington.

"Koolick, obviously not a member of the Mensa Society, returned amongst the police activity to retrieve his phone and was subsequently placed into custody," police said in a statement.

Koolick faces charges of aggravated assault and battery (to wit strangulation), threats to commit a crime and malicious destruction of property. He is set to be arraigned sometime Monday.

"Assaults on MBTA employees will NOT be tolerated and the TPD will vigorously pursue and prosecute anyone who does so," transit police said.

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