The bus driver, ‘the big fella’ and the box-cutter

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/06/2011 (5410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Richard Buist has been riding the bus for more than 20 years, but he’s never encountered anyone quite like the woman in the reddish-orange T-shirt and shorts.

Or the bus driver who came flying to his rescue like a, well, you know…

“An angel saved my life yesterday at the bus stop in front of the Centennial Concert Hall,” is the way Buist started his story.

Yesterday was last Thursday, but Buist, who’s a 53-year-old research scientist at the University of Manitoba’s department of pharmacology and therapeutics, had more angels than one to thank.

Actually, there were two angels.

The second he called the “big fella.”

Buist was on his way home, the balding bus driver was waiting to catch a bus to work, and the “big fella” was just there. As for the woman in the T-shirt and shorts, ostensibly she was panhandling at the bus stop, although from the details Buist and police provided, it sounds a lot more like attempted robbery.

She was swearing at women and threatening them with a box-cutter, according what Buist heard later.

She began swearing at Buist next, after giving him her hard-luck story. And when he didn’t give her any money, she pushed him in the chest.

He tried to turn away but she came after him in a threatening way before the bus driver, who was waiting for the bus, grabbed her and tossed her into what passes for a flower bed.

But she wasn’t through.

One of the women in the group she’d accosted earlier yelled out a warning.

“Watch out, she has a box-cutter.”

At that point, Buist watched as the woman fumbled in her purse and pulled out the razor-sharp weapon.

I’ll let him pick up the action from there.

“So, the bus driver tackles her again and pins her to the ground and tries to get the knife away from her. Soon, another big muscular fella comes over and, after some struggle, manages to get the knife away from her.”

In retrospect, Buist believes the woman is mentally ill because, well, I’ll let him tell you why.

“Because when the bus driver approached her the second time, she pulled down her shorts and said, ‘Do you want to rape my… ?’ “

By the time police arrived, the woman had pulled up her shorts and was sitting across James Street in front of the Pantages Playhouse Theatre, conveniently waiting for the officers to take her away.

Meanwhile, “the big fella” angel had the box-cutter.

One of the police officers from the two cruisers that attended asked Buist and the other two Good Samaritans if they wanted to press charges. Buist replied that he just wanted her to get help so the public is protected.

On Monday, police reported that a 39-year-old was arrested at the scene, treated for minor injuries at hospital, and then dropped off at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

Apparently, it’s not her first visit, because not only is she facing a charge of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, she was also charged with failure to comply with a conditional recognizance.

Before he left the scene last Thursday, “the big fella” asked Buist if he was OK and Buist asked the same of him. They were both fine.

Meanwhile, the bus driver, who was behind schedule getting to work, hopped a ride with police.

Before the “big fella” left, though, Buist was able to thank him.

Later, when he reflected on everything that happened, Buist felt compelled to do more than that for the two strangers who put his safety before their own.

“I just want to publicly thank the bus driver and the big fella for protecting me and the other bus passengers. You know who you are. But mostly,” Buist added, “I want to thank God for protecting me.”

— — —

NO GUTS, NO GLORY… Not every story from the Manitoba Marathon has crossed the finish line. And one of the best is one of the last.

Windsor Park mother Karen Tusa and her 11-year-old daughter, Cassandra, were in the five-kilometre Great-West Life Super Run on Sunday. But with so many runners packed into the start, Karen lost track of Cassandra.

That’s why she didn’t see Cassandra trip and fall near the beginning as she tried to pass a female runner.

The woman she tripped over stopped to help Cassandra, who was in so much pain that she was crying.

But the little girl refused to give up.

Karen didn’t know any of this until the end of the race, when Cassandra arrived and gave her mother the news.

“I think I broke my arm.”

In fact, Cassandra had done exactly that.

So what kept her going?

The same thing that keeps so many others running through the pain, even if they haven’t fallen and broken an arm.

“I just really wanted to finish,” Cassandra said. “I wanted to beat my time for last year.”

But she didn’t just break her record, she fractured it. By six minutes.

Congratulations, Cassandra.

And congratulations to everyone who ran through their own pain Sunday.

And hit the finish line.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca