(Photo by ep_jhu)

For the second time in as many months, an X2 Metrobus operator was targeted in a disturbing incident.

A passenger pulled a knife and threatened to kill the driver over a disputed fare, authorities say. Police arrested 20-year-old Davon Abney shortly before noon on Tuesday and charged him with assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a prohibited weapon, and threats to do bodily harm.

“When I see you again, [I’ll] kill you,” Abney told the driver while the bus was stopped at 8th and H streets NE, according to an account from Metro officials.

ATU Local 689, the union that represents bus operators and other Metro employees, said that Abney has a history of threatening, pulling a gun, and spitting on bus drivers, as well as fare evasion.

The incident comes less than two months after a woman poured a cup of urine on an X2 driver, prompting the union to call for an increase in the presence of transit police.

While reports of serious crimes were down across the Metro system over the past year, harassment complaints, fare evasion incidents, and assaults against Metrobus drivers are all up.

Bus operators were attacked 41 times the first six months of 2017, an increase of 20 percent from the same period the year prior. Suspects threw objects, spit on, hit, pushed, or kicked bus operators in 80 percent of the cases. About 27 percent of the incidents were the result of verbal altercations and 23 percent over fare disputes, according to Metro’s annual crime report.

Both recent incidents on the X2—the threat with a knife and the woman who threw urine—occurred on buses that have new Plexiglass protective shields. The coverings are “spit and drink-proof,” director Metrobus planning Jim Hamre told DCist in 2015. “That’s what we get the most of.” The union has countered in recent months that they are poorly designed and should be reconfigured to better protect drivers.

The union is also calling on legislators to reclassify assaults on felony transit workers as a felony, allow Metro to ban repeat offenders from the system (currently courts must issue a “stay-away” order that advocates say is rarely applied to all of Metro), and increase the presence of transit police officers.

“Transit assaults are at an epidemic level and Metro must address this urgent issue of safety so that workers and the riding public are protected,” ATU Local 689 said in a statement.

Previously:
Metro Reports Spikes In Bus Driver Assaults, Harassment, And More Crimes This Year
Metro Transit Police Say Man Spit On Bus Driver In Northeast
Woman Who Threw Urine On Bus Driver Explains Why
Metro Police Looking For Woman Who Poured Cup Of Urine On Bus Driver