Image via Complex Original
Public transit can be a pain sometimes. Train and bus riders are regularly faced with long routes, crowded subway cars, and stink-eyed beggars mean mugging from the across the aisle. We can almost assume at this point that subway cars ship with flickering lights overhead and the stench of urine already permeating the air. It all comes standard with public transit.
While we expect regular run-ins with trouble, 2012 saw a few particularly brutal incidents that made our common commuting woes seem like a breeze. Here are the worst of them: 15 heinous mass transit attacks that occurred in 2012.
Written by Faiz Siddiqui (@faizsays)
RELATED: Caught on Tape: The 50 Craziest Mass Transit Fights
15. Teen Attacked in California Metro Station
City: Colma, CA
When: 4/4/2012
A brazen attack left a teenager lying on the ground, bleeding, with wounds to his face and head at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Colma last April. Police said three people assaulted the man for unknown reasons just outside the pay gates of the station, around 7:30 p.m. Violence doesn't get any more senseless.
14. Guardian Angels Knifed on the L Platform
City: Chicago
When: 5/15/2012
Score one for the bad guys, unfortunately. In May, a group of vigilantes trying to apprehend a mugger on the L platform in Chicago lost out to a knife-wielding assailant after attempting to recover an iPhone stolen from another passenger. The four men, members of the prestigious Guardian Angels, had been trying to subdue the mugger when an accomplice with a folding knife attacked all of them on a busy subway platform, leaving them all with non-fatal stab wounds for their efforts. One member required 17 stitches to close a laceration on his right arm.
13. Philadelphia Metro Rider Stalked and Sexually Assaulted
City: Philadelphia
When: 5/26/2012
Looks like there isn't much brotherly love on Philadelphia rapid transit. On May 26, a woman was attacked and sexually assaulted after exiting a train on the city's SEPTA Broad Street line around 9 p.m. The 21-year-old victim had earlier noticed a man clad in sunglasses and a blue apron when she boarded and also observed him transfer onto another line along with her. The woman told police the man approached her as she exited the train, held a knife to her stomach, and forced her into the nearby parking lot where he then sexually assaulted her.
12. Pregnant Woman Assaulted and Robbed on BART
City: Pittsburgh, CA
When: 6/21/2012
A pregnant woman was hospitalized for a shocking reason in late June, after a tandem of assailants apparently took turns dealing blows to her face on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train between stations near San Francisco. According to police reports, the two attackers approached the woman around 3:30 one afternoon and tried to steal her laptop, a failed attempt that was met with a surprising amount of resistance from the pregnant woman. The robbers settled on taking the woman's cell phone, and were soon arrested.
11. Teen Girls Punch and Stab Elderly War Veteran
City: New York
When: 7/29/2012
A group of rowdy teens in Manhattan reportedly "went berserk" and began pounding their fists into the body of a 63-year-old Vietnam veteran one day in July, eventually stabbing the Queens man over a wisecrack he made regarding their behavior. The raucous group of eight girls was reportedly being so loud "you couldn't hear yourself think" around 6 a.m. one day as their 6 train approached the 23rd St. station, prompting the man to air his grievances. In response, the ravenous group pummeled the man with punches, leaving him bracing for cover on the train. One girl yelled "cut him" before an 18 or 19-year-old drove a knife into his left shoulder, leaving behind a wound that required seven stitches.
10. D.C. Metro Rider Stabbed in the Face
City: Washington D.C.
When: 9/17/2012
A passenger aboard Washington D.C.'s Metro train was lucky to survive a brutal on-board attack in September, when he was confronted by a woman who may have been trying to etch the Red Line into his face. The man was reportedly talking on his cell phone one night when a woman sitting nearby on the train confronted and eventually stabbed him in the face, slashing his skin open. Authorities learned of the ordeal while the train was still moving, because the accompanying passengers failed to push the big red emergency button that's built into every subway car in modern America. Police said the victim and knife-wielder did not know each other, making the attack completely random. The suspect was later taken in for psychological evaluation.
9. Fare-jumper Attacks Bronx Bus Driver
City: New York
When: 9/20/2012
A fare-jumper grabbed a 54-year-old Bronx bus driver by the throat and pinned him to the window of his own bus, beating him up and spitting on him all because he'd refused to allow him a transfer. "The only thing I told him was the fare is $2.25— that's all I said," the victim told a CBS reporter. The words were apparently enough to provoke the attacker, who left the 24-year-old veteran driver hospitalized with a concussion, back pain and ringing ears for simply following protocol. The man survived his injuries, but it's likely the words "bus fare" will now haunt him for the rest of his life.
8. Two Brooklyn Bus Drivers Attacked on the Same Day
City: New York
When: 9/24/2012
In unrelated incidents, two Brooklyn bus drivers were attacked by passengers within minutes of each other one day in September, only days after another bus driver in the Bronx was savagely beaten by a fare-jumper. The 30-year-old bus driver stopped to let a passenger off around 11 a.m. on Sept. 24 when he reportedly felt a "nasty sting" in his shoulder, the result of having been stabbed by a syringe. Luckily, there didn't appear to be any sort of infectious disease (or heroin) in the device's pump, so the bus driver escaped the incident relatively unharmed. A female rider assaulted another driver just minutes later. All of the violence resulted from squabbles over a few quarters.
7. Retired Teacher Gnaws on Man's Face
City: Guangzhou, China
When: 10/8/2012
A squabble over a subway seat in October (a seat on a train, to clarify, and not at a flavor-devoid eating establishment) led a retired teacher in China to begin gnawing at a younger man's face one morning in October. Passengers reported that a pool of blood poured from the victim's face and the violence escalated to the point that onlookers were left scrambling to get out of the way. The 28-year-old man, identified as "Wu," shoved 67-year-old possible zombie Chen as he scrambled for a seat. Both men suffered minor injuries in the incident, and both later apologized, though any apology for deliberately eating another person's face off should be taken with a grain of salt.
6. Disabled Woman Raped on L.A. Bus
City: Culver City, CA
When: 11/7/2012
A mentally-disabled 18-year-old woman endured ten agonizing minutes of trauma when she was raped in the back of a nearly-empty Los Angeles County bus. A group of passengers and the bus driver were oblivious to the situation and the 20-year-old attacker who boarded the bus in Culver City. Hard to believe that nobody realized this vicious attack was occurring right under their noses.
5. Man Pushed Onto Subway Tracks and Photographed in Last Moments
City: New York
When: 12/3/2012
Controversy broke out after a freelance photographer snapped an image of a 58-year-old man who'd been pushed onto the subway tracks in Midtown Manhattan, rather than rushing to his assistance. The shot, published on the front page of the New York Post the next day, depicted the Queens man's final moments before he was struck and killed by an oncoming train. A clearly agitated man pushed the victim onto the tracks as the train approached the 49th Street and Seventh Avenue station on the night of Dec. 3. The next day in Brooklyn, a New York Times photographer depicted riders stood facing the tracks, clearly shaken.
4. Basketball Argument Ends in Shooting
City: Philadelphia
When: 12/12/2012
Two teenagers in Philadelphia opened fire on a Chicago Bulls fan and an innocent bystander following a tough loss for their hometown 76ers. The incident took place around 10:30 p.m. at a West Philadelphia station. NBC Philadelphia reports that the two brothers Eric, 16, and Matthew, 18, got into an altercation with two Chicago Bulls fans about the game. One of the brothers then fired into the subway car, shooting one of the Bulls fans in the stomach. The bullet then passed through the man and struck an innocent bystander in the leg. Thankfully, both victims are expected to make a full recovery.
3. Woman Attacked with Feces-Filled Sock on Chicago Train
City: Chicago
When: 12/19/2012
A woman riding Chicago's L train in December was horrified one evening when an assailant armed with a sock full of poop (human poop!) attacked her onboard the train as she sat text messaging on her phone. The 21-year-old college student said, "It was everywhere; on my face, my hair, my clothes," and requested anonymity, likely because she feared the epic mocking she would endure. She later went on to say she wished the man would have "just hit me." Paramedics arrived and provided towels and water, likely at a loss for how to further ameliorate the situation. Meanwhile, a poor girl was left with many questions. "I don't know why he did it," the victim said. The satire writes itself.
2. Man Pushed Onto Subway Tracks in Hate-Motivated Crime
City: New York
When: 12/27/2012
December was a bad month for New York subways. Weeks after a man was pushed onto the subway tracks in Midtown Manhattan following a petty altercation, an Indian immigrant was shoved to his death in front of a Queens train. "I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims. Ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers, I've been beating them up," cops said the suspect told detectives. The deranged woman reportedly broke into maniacal laughter after she was charged with a hate crime following the gruesome killing of the Hindu man.
1. Man Dies in Edmonton Light Rail Assault
City: Edmonton, Canada
When: 12/28/2012
A 29-year-old victim of a targeted attack died of head injuries in late December after he was savagely beaten on a moving Edmonton Light Rail Transit train. Transit officials, upon learning an attack was taking place on Dec. 28, reportedly decided to keep the train active for the three-minute ride to a stop down the line so the victim could have better access to police and paramedics. Passengers fled the car at the nearest stop after the altercation broke out, but when the punches continued after the train doors opened, operators allowed the train doors to shut once more, leaving the victim alone with his attacker. Objectively, the act gave the assailant three more minutes to initiate the ultimately fatal blows to the victim's head.