October 17, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
A SEPTA bus rider attacked another passenger with a meat cleaver during an argument early Thursday morning in Center City, police say. The attacker was arrested. The injured man suffered lacerations to his head and hands.
A man slashed another man with a meat cleaver during a fight on a SEPTA bus in Center City early Thursday morning, police said.
The altercation occurred on a southbound Broad Street Line Owl bus shortly before 3 a.m. at Broad and Callowhill streets – near the police headquarters building. As the quarrel escalated, one of the men attacked the other with his meat cleaver, investigators said.
The injured man, who is 61, suffered lacerations to his head and hands, but police said he is in stable condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Witnesses told police that the man with the meat cleaver was speaking incoherently before he struck the other man. As the attack happened, another passenger ran off the bus and alerted an officer who was in front of police headquarters, police said.
The officer arrested the attacker, who is 45, and recovered the meat cleaver. Police said he will face assault charges and undergo a mental health examination. His name has not been released.
Police said video footage from the bus may have captured the attack. Investigators also interviewed passengers who witnessed it.
Serious crime on SEPTA dropped by 34% through Sept. 30 when compared to the same point last year, the transit authority reported earlier this month. Robberies decreased by 47.6%, aggravated assaults were down by 22.5% and homicides were down by 20%. Shootings fell by 31%.
