A man has been sentenced to four years behind bars for slashing an MTA bus driver in September 2014. NY1's Jose Martinez filed the following report.
The scar is still there for MTA bus driver John Browne. So is the memory of being slashed in the face and neck by a man while he was on the job.
"The way he came at me, I could have been killed," Browne told the court.
On Thursday, a Brooklyn judge sentenced Alfredo Perez to four years in prison for what prosecutors described as an unprovoked attack.
"I do understand there must be consequences for my action. I know have to pay for what I did," Perez said.
Prosecutors asked for the maximum seven-year sentence for the assault charge. Defense lawyers pushed for probation and treatment, saying Perez suffers from serious mental health problems.
"He will come out within a few years much worse," said defense lawyer Matthew Cohen.
But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Michael Gary said the violence of the attack justified a prison sentence.
"You took out a weapon. You raised it to a level that was beyond any possible explanation or justification," Gary said.
The attack occurred in September 2014 near the corner of Mother Gaston Boulevard and Hegeman Avenue in Brownsville, the last stop on the B35 route. Browne's bus had stalled because of mechanical problems. When Browne stepped out of a bodega, he was attacked with a knife, a memory he cannot shake.
"I'd never seen him before, I'd never had a conversation with him, nothing. So this is senseless," Browne said.
Union officials say bus drivers are abused far too often. Mostly, it's verbal. Sometimes, they are spat at.
Drivers complain that judges have not been tough enough when the attacks turn physical. But the union said it was pleased with Perez's punishment.
"Our job is to make sure that good men like Mr. Browne here don't get assaulted for no reason, don't have their life threatened for no reason," said JP Patafio,
Browne didn't go back to work for 10 months after the attack. And though he did reurn behind the wheel, he's now out again, suffering from a pinched nerve that he blames on the slashing.