Transit driver injured by angry passenger Union fears rate of violent incidents on the rise By: Tyler Searle Posted: 6:47 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025 Last Modified: 9:08 AM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025 Updates

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A Winnipeg bus driver is recovering from being shot with a pellet gun by an angry passenger Monday afternoon.

The crime is the latest attack aboard Winnipeg Transit, which continues to experience high levels of violence, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 president Chris Scott said Tuesday.

The victim — a man in his 40s who has been a transit operator for about 18 years — was driving northbound on Gateway Road, near Springfield Road, around 2 p.m. when a passenger asked him to stop the bus, Scott said.

“The individual came up at a red light and asked to get off. The driver said, ‘The light’s about the change,’” Scott said, explaining how the incident was described to him.

“He pulled across the intersection to let the passenger off and then the passenger was freaking out, yelling and swearing at him and then, allegedly, to our understanding, used a weapon to assault him.”

Scott said the driver received a puncture wound to his hand as he defended himself. The suspect ran away, leaving the driver alone with one other passenger.

Union officials spoke with the driver as he was being treated at Concordia Hospital, and again Tuesday to check on him, Scott said.

“He’s at home. Physically, he’s doing OK, but obviously there’s a psychological injury there that is quite significant,” Scott said. “I do believe, as a result of the assault, it will be a long road to recovery for him to be able to come back to driving a bus.”

The Winnipeg Police Service didn’t confirm details of the attack until Wednesday morning, when it issued a release describing the weapon used in the assault as a pellet gun.

Police said the suspect is believed to be a youth.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said he, too, is waiting for more information.

“I’ll be looking for the details on that, but obviously we don’t want… any of our employees assaulted, and so my thoughts to him and his family,” Gillingham told reporters.

“One of the reasons that we brought in the community safety officer program… (is) to make sure that there’s better safety on our transit system. Again, I don’t know all the details of this incident, but we will continue to make our efforts, to make our buses safer and our transit stops safer for both our drivers and our riders alike.”

The city introduced the team of safety officers in February 2024 and tasked them with defusing dangerous situations, providing first aid and helping vulnerable people connect to resources. The officers have the authority to detain people when safety is at risk, but cannot arrest individuals for Criminal Code offences.

“They have quite a unique role and that was a benefit, to a point,” Scott said. “We did see a downturn in the number of incidents reported at the time they were implemented, but it does seem to have escalated back up.”

Police said 325 violent crimes were reported at Winnipeg Transit locations in 2024 alone, including on buses and in areas around bus shelters. The service said that marked a “historic high” that nearly tripled 2019 numbers, with the trend continuing this year.

“We did see a downturn in the number of incidents reported at the time they were implemented, but it does seem to have escalated back up.”

In response, police pledged last month to have more officers ride buses, patrol transit stops and monitor shelters, both in uniform and in plainclothes. The initiative will run until the end of the year, when it will be reassessed.

Scott said he believes transit is on track for another record-breaking year of violence.

According to union data, 221 violent incidents have been reported on Winnipeg Transit so far this year. Of those, more than 90 instances involved assaults against transit employees. The figure does not include incidents just outside the bus or those passengers reported only to police.

“A great deal of those are obviously operators, as they are constantly out in the public, but we also have a couple of maintenance staff who were assaulted while performing their duties out on the street,” Scott said.

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The union is pushing Winnipeg Transit to install safety enclosures that would surround the driver’s seat and protect them from violence. The city spent $3.15 million to add partial shields six years ago.

The mayor said the discussion about whether to implement such a change is ongoing.

“They do have shields now, or half-shields. We’ve talked about moving to some full shields as well. Again, (I) don’t know the details of this incident, but our conversations continue with the union as well.”

—With files from Joyanne Pursaga

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.