A man stabbed an MTA bus driver in the stomach and slashed his face after the driver tried to stop him from riding without paying his fare in Brooklyn early Tuesday morning, the NYPD said. 

The man tried to board the bus through its rear door without paying at the intersection of Ocean and Flatbush avenues in Prospect Lefferts Gardens around 12:20 a.m., police said. 

When the driver tried to stop the man, the man stabbed him in the stomach and slashed him above the eye before fleeing the bus, according to police. 

What You Need To Know

  • A man stabbed an MTA bus driver in the stomach and slashed him above the eye in Brooklyn early Tuesday morning, the NYPD said

  • The driver was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, police said

  • The heads of TWU Local 100, which represents thousands of New York City transit workers, said the driver was operating a shuttle bus serving riders affected by a partial overnight Q train shutdown when the attack happened

  • The man who attacked the driver hadn't been arrested as of late Tuesday morning, according to police

The driver was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in stable condition, the NYPD said. His age wasn’t immediately released. 

The driver’s attacker, who appeared to be in his 30s, hadn’t been arrested as of late Tuesday morning, police said. 

In a statement released Tuesday morning, TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano and Vice President J.P. Patafio, whose union represents thousands of New York City transit workers, said the driver was operating a shuttle bus serving riders affected by a partial overnight Q train shutdown when the attack happened.  

When the man tried to board in between stops, the driver told him to board the bus at the next stop, at which point the man “forced open the rear door” and “threatened, spit at and attacked the bus operator, who was forced to try and defend himself,” according to the statement. 

The driver was “sitting up and talking” in the hospital after the attack, Utano said in the statement, adding that he was “obviously shaken up but is dealing [with] the trauma the best he can.” 

“This is a regular working-class guy who was doing the business of the city, making sure people could get where they need to go when the subway was down, and he was subjected to an unprovoked and horrible attack,” Utano and Patafio said in the statement. 

“This criminal must be caught, and he should get the maximum penalty under the law,” they added. 

The MTA should include “bus operator cockpits” that “completely separate” drivers from passengers in the designs for their electric buses, Patafio said in the statement. 

NY1 has reached out to the MTA for comment.