Crime & Safety

Cleveland RTA Uppercut Driver: Woman Choked Me, Spit on Me

See excerpts from the RTA Police report the driver filed after the Sept. 18 Beachwood incident that became a viral video.

The RTA driver who delivered an uppercut to a female passenger on a Beachwood bus told RTA police that the woman had choked him and spit on him while he was driving.

which occurred near the 23300 block of Chagrin Boulevard, was posted online Oct. 11 and has had nearly 3.3 million hits since.

See all posts on this topic: RTA Uppercut Topic Page

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According to driver Artis Hughes' statement, the woman, Shidea N. Lane, boarded the bus Sept. 18 and did not pay. He told her to pay and she began cursing at him, he said. Eventually she paid, but continued to berate him.

LOOK | Driver and Witness' Full Statements to Police

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He told police that she grabbed his neck and spit in his face while he was driving.

Hughes' written statement [sic]:

While leaving Van Aken passenger gets on the bus acting strange said she left her bookbag I ask her what you gone do she said go on so I took her to the next stop she still didn't want to pay so I told the passenger she holdin you all up so she said so what. An argument started, she was threatining me and calling me b's and h's and she said she would spit on me thats when I told her I would hurt her she continued to threatin me and as I was driving she grabbed me in the throat and spit on me in the face. I stopped the bus and I protected myself and got off the bus called traffic and waited for the police. While on the phone with traffic she attacted me again so I got off the bus and waited on police.

In the video, she is seen approaching him and bending over him before he gets up and delivers an uppercut that knocks her to the floor, and then throws her off the bus.

Witnesses to the incident wrote that Lane was acting strangely, even combative, to the driver.

One witness to the incident wrote in his statement, "All she had to do was pay and sit down but she had other plans."

WATCH | Cleveland RTA Bus Driver Hits Female Passenger: Video Taken in Beachwood

POLL | Do you think the driver deserves more punishment?

READ | Twitterverse Responds to Cleveland RTA Uppercut Video

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