Bus union calls for full shields after passenger pulls out gun

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This article was published 01/11/2024 (342 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The union representing Winnipeg Transit drivers is calling for full shields after a passenger pulled a gun on a bus outside police headquarters early Friday.

Derek Hanley, executive vice-president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, and a bus driver for 26 years, said it was only after he spoke to the shaken driver that he realized where the incident had taken place.

“Smith and Graham — that’s right outside police headquarters,” said Hanley. “How brazen are people jumping off a bus with a handgun running in front of the police building?

“What is happening today?”

Hanley said while the half shields on buses were designed to reduce the chance of a Transit worker getting punched, they don’t prevent passengers from putting their arms around the shields to spray the driver with pepper spray.

“I’m hoping for full shields in 2025,” he said. “We also need more fare enforcement. Ninety per cent of the people who do something do not pay a fare and it gives them a feeling of empowerment.

“If there was enforcement, they wouldn’t just use the bus as a getaway vehicle.”

Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said the incident occurred Friday at about 12:30 a.m.

“The suspect, reported to be armed with a firearm, fled before police arrived,” said Chancy. “No injuries were reported and the incident is being investigated.”

Chancy said no arrests have been made.

The gun incident wasn’t the only violent episode aboard buses recently, Hanley said, noting another driver was forced to flee a bus recently in South Pointe.

“The driver picked up an individual in distress and called the police,” he said. “This person went ballistic and the driver had to jump out the driver’s side window and run for help. The person went on the dash, went around the shield and went out the window to chase the operator.

“It doesn’t matter where you are in the city.”

Hanley said by Oct. 31, there had been 183 acts of violence on Winnipeg buses so far this year, down from 257 at this time in 2023.

“But while the incidents are down, we’ve seen the seriousness go up,” he said. “More guns, machetes and pepper spray has occurred.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca