A grand jury in Nevada hasseen videoevidence of a man stabbing a fellow passenger to death on a bus as it travels through Las Vegas.
Aaron Frank Cole, 59, is charged with the murder of Dominique Lucas, 30, on Feb. 26 while both men were aboard an RTC bus.
“I wasn’t bothering you,” Lucas can be heard telling his attacker, moments before Cole launches toward him. Lucas is then shown moving towards the front of the bus saying “let me off,” as the driver continues on the route.
Cole is accused of stabbing the victim 33 times during the attack – which lasted about four minutes.
At one point the bus doors briefly open but then close again. Tragically, Lucas is heard pleading for the bus driver to help.
The driver activates a panic button and speaks with a dispatcher. He is heard saying to Lucas, “Man, come on, you want to get off the bus?”
Two minutes after the frenzied attack started, Cole is seen in the video getting out of his seat and stabbing Lucas several more times. The bus eventually stops and opens its doors four minutes after the attack began.
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Cole wasarrested less than two weeks priorto the deadly bus attack for an unrelated assault, local outletLas Vegas Review-Journalreported.
He was charged on Feb 16. over an alleged assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of carrying or concealing a dangerous weapon, added 8 News Now, which also cited legal documents stating that he wasapproved for bail and deemed “low risk.”
Cole remains in custody over the murder charge and a future court date is yet to be scheduled.
A spokesperson for Keolis North America, which employs the driver, told PEOPLE the bus could not pull over immediately because of a “heavy stream of traffic.” The spokesman said the bus cannot move when doors are opened, and the driver “needed to negotiate two lanes of traffic to get to the far right-hand lane and pull into the curb to safely open the doors.”
The spokesperson said: “The driver hit the emergency button which notified dispatch communications, giving the situation priority status, and then the driver immediately called 911. In this instance, the driver was ensuring the safety of all passengers on board.”
source: people.com
