Lynn Man Accused Of Stabbing MBTA Bus Driver Appears In Court

LYNN (CBS) -- A man police say stabbed an MBTA bus driver Saturday night was arraigned in Lynn District Court Monday.

Gustavo Merida, 53 of Lynn, is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Police said the attack happened on a Route 426 bus on Fenton Street around 11:47 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses said he first lunged at a fellow passenger, then attacked the driver without provocation.

Several passengers pulled him off the driver, and were able to hold him down until Lynn and MBTA Transit Police could arrive.

Rachel Felice was one of the riders who tried to help the driver.

"She just kept asking me, 'why did he do this?' I think it was unprovoked. I don't think that she did anything," Felice told WBZ-TV's Paul Burton on Sunday. "A passenger said that he first tried to lunge at him with the knife and then ran to the front door which was closed."

The driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries--two stab wounds to her neck--and was taken to a local hospital.

Friends described her as a petite woman in her 60's.

"She a wonderful person, she's very tiny, 100 pounds soaking wet, she would never say anything bad to anybody," said Debbie Manning.

The woman's sister told WBZ-TV's David Robichaud on Monday that the driver was released from the hospital the night before night but might return because she is in so much pain.

"We are extremely grateful to the passengers who interjected themselves to stop the assailant and prevent further harm to our employee," MBTA Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan said in a statement Sunday.

MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said Monday morning that the driver was released from the hospital Sunday night.

Boston Carmen's Union President Jimmy O'Brien called the attack "unacceptable" and pointed out that the all the MBTA buses need better security and driver protection.

"The vast majority of operators are on old buses that lack sufficient safety barriers," O'Brien said in a statement. "Replacing a handful of buses is not enough, it's time to bring the entire fleet of buses into the 21st century and give operators the security and protection they need. No more excuses, it needs to happen now."

Pesaturo said that MBTA management made the decision more than two years ago to have every new bus equipped with a partition.

He says more than 200 buses with protective barriers are in service now; 375 buses with partitions will be in service by the fall.